With three of the four spinning seats taken, everyone’s now wondering who will be The Voice UK’s fourth and final coach.
So far the series 3 line-up includes returning judges Sir Tom Jones and will.i.am plus the newly named Kylie Minogue, still leaving one seat empty.
One quarter of The Voice UK coaches line-up, Kylie Minogue. Image Credit: BBC/ Darenote Ltd 2013. Photographer: Leanne Buckham
Now if there’s one thing we’ve noticed about how The Voice is produced both here in the UK and in the US, it’s that they try to swap like for like where possible. This seems to apply to both the presenting and coaching line-ups.
When it comes to the hosts you always get one guy and one girl, while the coaches formula seems to be fixed at three males to one lady.
Producers also appear keen to keep the same mix of musical genres represented among the coaches with 1 pop star, 1 rock star, 1 hip hop/R&B star and 1 country singer. If they also happen to fit the same general physical description such as Christina Aguilera and Shakira on the US version, then all the better.
So if the deciding factor for choosing The Voice UK’s fourth judge comes down to gender and musical genre then that points to a male rock singer being top of the shopping list.
What we think it will come down to is the BBC replacing ex coach Danny O’Donoghue with someone very similar. We would’ve suggested the Stereophonics lead singer Kelly Jones but he’s apparently already turned down the offer. Of course if that’s true it does kinda back-up our theories.
It’s easy to understand then the delay in confirming the shows final coach. Lets face it, successful British or Irish rock lead singers under the age of 60 are somewhat thin on the ground these days. Especially if their contractually required to look a bit like US coach Adam Levine.
Looks aside, perhaps Keane’s Tom Chaplin, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos or maybe even Guy Garvey from Elbow could be in the running.
So will the BBC stick to the international tried and tested Voice formula, or will they break tradition and add a second female? Either way, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer to find out.
