Newcomers Dan + Shay will join the competition alongside returning team leaders Reba McEntire, John Legend, and Chance the Rapper
As is tradition, the coaches of The Voice have gathered for a special group performance ahead of the singing competition’s return next week.
This time around, the song of choice was Jackie DeShannon’s 1969 classic “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” (which Annie Lennox and Al Green also turned into a hit in 1988). Judges Chance the Rapper, John Legend, Reba McEntire, and Dan + Shay turned in a rousing rendition of the uplifting tune, getting an extra assist from a full-throated choir.
Season 25 of The Voice is set to premiere on NBC next Monday, Feb. 26. McEntire and Legend will both be returning from Season 24, while Chance the Rapper was last seen in a coach’s chair in Season 23. Dan + Shay will technically be this year’s newcomers — though they did serve as mentors in Season 20 — and they’ll also be the competition’s first “double chair” coaches.
Despite the country duo getting two chairs, they’ll still only have one button to press when selecting their 14-person teams. Unsurprisingly, this led to some conversations about strategy and handling such a high-pressure situation, as Dan + Shay discussed in a recent Billboard interview.
“When we were flying out [to L.A.] for the first time, we looked over at each other’s like, ‘Should we come up with some kind of strategy, like two taps on the knee is a yes?’ We didn’t realize when they started taping that there’s cameras on you from every angle at all times, you’re miked up. You can’t really talk to each other that much. If one of us is really feeling it, we’ve given each other permission to go ahead and smash that button and turn that chair around. But the two chairs, one button [thing] is an interesting dynamic.”