Well, it turns out that Mariah Carey couldn't stay away from televised singing competitions for long. A little over five years after ending her stint as a judge on Fox's American Idol, the megastar is headed to NBC's four-time Emmy Award-winning The Voice. But, instead of judging this time around, Carey will be lending her talents to the show as a key advisor to the contestants, beginning on October 29.
Mariah Carey is joining The Voice for the Season 15 Knockout Rounds, and, as such, she will be charged with mentoring the 32 artists who are still in the running on the show, along with coaches Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and Blake Shelton. During this round, each artist is paired against a teammate and tasked with choosing their own song to sing individually as their direct competition stands by and watches their performance. The winner of each separate Knockout Round will make it to the next phase of the competition, the Live Playoffs, and will come one step closer to making their dream of becoming a recording artist come true.
Because Mariah Carey has signed on as The Voice's Knockout Advisor (a title she probably really enjoys), this means she will be on hand to help each coach and every singer on their team prepare for the challenge of the Knockout Rounds. During the competition, however, only the coaches will be able to decide who moves on to the next round.
Obviously, Mariah Carey is a wonderful choice to help guide these artists in their journey on The Voice. Her five-octave vocal range and extreme songwriting and producing talent made her an almost instant hit, and a legend, all these years after she first hit the scene. Since making her debut on the music charts in 1990, Carey has gone on to become the top selling female artist of all time, with over a whopping 200 million albums sold across 14 releases and 18 Billboard Hot 100 number one singles (17 of which she wrote herself); more than any other solo artist in history.
And, of course, anyone with a storied musical career like Mariah Carey's is going to also be one of the most nominated and awarded artists the world has ever seen. Carey has won an astounding 344 awards from 497 nominations from a wide variety of musical organizations throughout the world, and among those wins are five Grammys, 21 American Music Awards, 12 BET Awards, 32 Billboard Music Awards and 21 World Music Awards. Carey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2015, has had two Las Vegas residencies (#1 to Infinity from 2015-2017 and The Butterfly Returns from 2018-2019), and just announced her 15th studio album, Caution, which will be released on November 16, 2018.
While Carey hasn't spoken out just yet on what made her decide to take on the role of Knockout Advisor on this season of The Voice, something tells me she was interested in imparting her many years of singing, songwriting, music business and performance wisdom on those still looking for their big break in an industry that's often unbelievably difficult to break into. And, she was probably looking for a way to do that in an environment that would be gentler than the one she encountered during her time on American Idol, so, why not head to that show's main competitor?
When Mariah Carey signed on to judge on American Idol in Season 12, many fans likely hoped it would be the start of several seasons of her helping the singers there hone their craft, but the 2013 season of the hit turned out to be the only one for Carey, and a lot of that was likely due to her feud with co-judge Nicki Minaj. While still in the auditioning phase of that season, in the fall of 2012, a video leaked of Minaj unleashing a vicious tirade against Carey during the Charlotte, North Carolina auditions.
Some who watched the video even claimed that Minaj, while off camera, threatened to shoot Carey. While Minaj denied ever making such a threat, Carey went on record saying that she felt that American Idol quickly became an unsafe workplace for her and she even beefed up her personal security while working on the show.
In addition, a controversy erupted over whether or not the producers of American Idol leaked the video on purpose to help generate buzz, seeing as how the show was not as strong in the ratings as it had been in previous seasons, with the judging panel getting switched up on a more regular basis. Nick Cannon, who was married to Carey at the time, publicly stated that he felt this was how the video leaked, while those behind the show and Fox denied the allegations.
The battle between Carey and Minaj continued into 2013 when Carey noted, during an episode, that her fellow judge had never had a number one song on the US Billboard Hot 100. This led Minaj to take to Twitter and post a harsh rant, which labeled Carey as "bitter" and "insecure" among other unsavory things, and referred to a rumor that the producers were actually looking to bring Jennifer Lopez back in Season 13 in place of Carey.
Of course, Jennifer Lopez did, indeed, return for the final three seasons of American Idol on Fox, which seemed to work out just fine for Mariah Carey, who has been able to joke about her experience on the program in recent years. And, while the singer has made headlines for her relationship issues, personal problems and one...surprising New Year's Eve performance, Carey seems to be back to 100% throwing her talent into doing what she loves.
Hopefully, Mariah Carey's time on The Voice was more enjoyable (and fruitful for the contestants) than her time on American Idol. We can all see how she works out as a Knockout Advisor when her first episode airs on Monday, October 29 at 8 p.m. EST. For more on what you can watch this season, check out our 2018 fall premiere guide.
