Blake Shelton About Being Replaced by Reba McEntire: “She’s Just so Authentic”

Blake Shelton is all set to wrap his last season on ‘The Voice’ after being a coach on the show for 23 seasons. He will be replaced by Reba McEntire in season 24, and Shelton believes she will make a fine replacement for him. 

“Well, there’s a couple of things about Reba that makes her so special. First of all, she’s just so authentic,” he said about McEntire. “I don’t know anybody in the country, or on the planet, who is more authentic than Reba, and that’s just the truth, but the other thing is her talent. … She was born with this raw, natural talent that’s just unbelievable.”

He added, “People will finally maybe start to realise what an incredible vocalist she is. I shouldn’t say that; millions of us already know that. But so many more people are going to realise what an incredible vocalist she is because she’s going to, as a coach on this show, perform at times, you know, and it’s just, it’s shocking what an incredible singer she is.”

Apart from Reba, Shelton’s wife Gwen Stefani will also be on next season’s coaching panel. “Gwen’s got a lot of reasons to keep coming back to ‘The Voice’. First and foremost I know she absolutely loves this job and she’s always excited and a little bit shocked when they call and ask her and invite her to come back again,” he said of Stefani’s return. “I’m going, ‘Why? Why are you surprised by this? Of course they want you!’”

Shelton is more than happy to take a step back from this endeavour to take up new opportunities in life: “I just think it’s time for what’s next in my life.” The coaches for ‘The Voice’ season 24 will be McEntire, Stefani, Niall Horan and John Legend.

– Riya Sohini