The legendary songstress will help three-time champ Blake Shelton go for win number four on season 5 of The Voice.
Yahoo Music reported today that Shelton has landed superstar Cher as his team’s mentor this season. While the other coaches have announced their celebrity mentors (One Republic’s Ryan Tedder for Team Adam, Ed Sheeran for Team Christina, and the recently-announced Miguel for Team Cee Lo), Cher is by far the biggest “get” for the show. Imagine how excited/terrified Team Blake’s contestants will be to sing in front of Cher?
Cher is an interesting choice for Shelton’s team, obviously, considering his country background, and his tendency to choose mostly country singers for his team. But Cher is Cher, and her fifty-plus years in the entertainment business are sure to have provided her with plenty of advice to bestow on Team Blake’s contestants.
Shelton’s choice of Cher becomes a less surprising one when you learn some of the history behind his connection to the diva. As he told Yahoo Music’s Reality Rocks at last year’s finale, “I lost my dad a year and a half ago, and my dad’s favorite artist on earth, bar none, no question, was Cher. My dad worshipped Cher. I wish he could have seen tonight’s episode, because I would’ve been texting him saying, ‘Hey, I met Cher! I took a picture with Cher!’…She has no idea about any of that, but it was a real big deal to meet her…she’s just as viable and important to music today as she ever was.”
Shelton and Cher are both huge characters with huge personalities, so we are likely in store for quite an entertaining display of teamwork between the two. And maybe, if we’re very lucky, we might get to see a Blake/Cher duet, or perhaps a Burlesque reunion between Cher and Shelton’s fellow coach Christina Aguilera.
The Voice celebrity mentors help the coaches guide their contestants during the battle rounds. In the battle rounds, two contestants from the same team are paired together to sing a duet. Following the performance, their coach chooses the contestant they feel performed better to advance to the next round. But before the performance itself, the contestants meet with their coach and celebrity mentor to rehearse their song, and sometimes sit down for a nice heart-to-heart.