The four coaches on this season of The Voice have recorded The Weight together, and the clip went out on 17 September, ahead of the premiere rather than inside an episode. Kelly Clarkson closes it, barefoot, after the other three have each had the song for a while.
Riley Green opens on acoustic guitar. Adam Levine moves to the drums for the first verse while the others watch, and all four come in together on the chorus. Queen Latifah takes the next stretch on her own, Green comes back for another verse, and Clarkson finishes. It is arranged as a handover rather than a showcase, which is the point of the exercise.
The coaches' group performance is a fixture of the show, put out every season as the first thing audiences see of a new panel working together. The choice of song is doing work here too: The Weight was released by The Band in 1968 and later landed on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs, so it belongs to all four of them and to none of them in particular.
Season 30 pairs two returning coaches with two new ones. Levine and Clarkson have both done the job before. Queen Latifah and Green are making their coaching debuts, and Green has been open about finding it easier than the other new thing on his schedule. Speaking on the Superstar Power Hour podcast, he said the show is a lot easier than acting.
His acting debut came on Marshals opposite Luke Grimes, playing a former Marine with post-traumatic stress, a role he said he had not lived and had to get out of his own skin for. On The Voice, by his account, he is just being himself, and his pitch to contestants is to make fun of Levine for being old, remind them how famous Queen Latifah is, and point out that he is more country than Clarkson.
The premiere is on Monday 21 September at 8 p.m. eastern on NBC. Green has had a busy year on camera either way, and recently talked through an awkward moment filming a duet video with Carly Pearce. Queen Latifah's own run of hosting work included the 52nd American Music Awards, which puts three of the four coaches in pop television as much as in music this year.
The facts
- Kelly Clarkson, Riley Green, Queen Latifah and Adam Levine performed The Weight for The Voice.
- The clip was released ahead of the season 30 premiere rather than inside an episode.
- Riley Green opens on acoustic guitar and Adam Levine plays drums on the first verse.
- The Weight was released by The Band in 1968.
- Queen Latifah and Riley Green are new coaches; Levine and Clarkson have done the job before.
- Green said the show is a lot easier than acting on the series Marshals.
- The Voice season 30 premieres on Monday 21 September at 8 p.m. eastern on NBC.
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