Sir Tom Jones: ‘I love The Voice as much now as when we first started’

​“I love doing this show. I love it as much now as when we first started… it’s a great experience to listen to new talent.”

The It’s Not Unusual singer, now 84, has been a coach on the ITV singing programme since its beginning in 2012, sitting alongside The Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am as they and their fellow coaches listen to endless British vocal talent perform on the coveted stage.

The star potential this year is no different: “The talent level this series is blazing – it’s next level,” says will.i.am, 49.

“We have a lot of great artists this year to showcase.”

The Voice differs from the other talent shows on British television in that when they first perform in front of the celebrity coaches, contestants are singing to the backs of their chairs.

Only when a coach decides they would like to take a singer under their wing, working with them to achieve the grand prize of a recording contract with Universal Music Group, can they press the button in front of them and turn their chairs to look at the person producing the voice they just fell in love with.

Over the last 12 years, Sir Tom and will.i.am have been joined by a number of fellow coaches, but there are three new faces on the panel this time following the departure of Olly Murs and Anne-Marie after the 2023 series.

Grammy Award-winning American singer LeAnn Rimes, known for tracks How Do I Live and Can’t Fight the Moonlight, takes a coaching seat on The Voice this year.

And, for the first time, there’s a double seat – occupied by McFly’s Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones – so contestants are working to impress a total of five potential coaches.

“Obviously we want singers that have that great facility to their voice, that can hit all the notes, but there’s a lot of singers that can hit notes. For me, it’s always about feeling,” says Rimes, 41, of how she decides who to turn her chair for.

“Like, do you make me cry? Do you give me chills? Can you communicate what you’re singing and hit my heart? Because that’s how you draw people in. That’s the magic.”

For Fletcher and Jones, whose boy band McFly are known for chart-topping hits like 5 Colours in Her Hair and Obviously, joining The Voice as co-coaches has been “amazing”.

“Me and Danny have been standing on stage with each other for 21, 22 years. So that bit’s the easy bit,” says Fletcher, 39, of making important decisions together on The Voice.

“I think the hard bit is suddenly feeling the pressure – this is potentially the future of their career in our greasy hands.”

Fletcher says that he knows “exactly how it feels to be stood, hoping someone says yes in that audition environment”, because of how many rejections he dealt with before his career took off with McFly in the early 2000s.

“When I was a kid, I grew up at theatre school and doing auditions all the time, and I auditioned for so many bands and management companies, and had lots and lots of rejection,” he says.

“And so that element of it, before McFly, I feel gave me a lot of empathy for people in that situation.

“I mean, McFly exists because I didn’t get into Busted. I auditioned for Busted, and they said no. So… my real defining moment in my life was that rejection.”

“Probably (the reason) why they’re coming onto The Voice (is) for someone to realise their potential, and it takes someone like us to realise their potential,” adds Jones, 38.

“Make them believe in it, to give them the springboard to then go on and do amazing things. Because once you start believing it, you can do anything.”

Singers on The Voice have the unparalleled luxury of learning more about their craft from the very best, from singers who’ve carved careers through decades of experience.

What is interesting about the new era of singers coming through, says Rimes and Sir Tom, is how they can instantly reach thousands of people from their bedrooms through social media, and what that means for their stage presence when they first start training on The Voice.

“You had to do the clubs, get some experience, and then hopefully do an audition for a record company, to get a record deal, in order to go on television…” says Sir Tom of how the process worked when he started out in the music industry.

“If you had an idea for a song, you couldn’t get it across to the general public like you can today.”

“It is really strange, because some of our artists that come on the show, they sit in their room and sing, so they don’t have stage experience,” adds Rimes, who has been recording albums since before she was a teenager.

“Sometimes you’re dealing with a really great voice, but they have no idea what they’re doing when they step onto a stage.

“A lot of what we try to instil in them – very quickly, because it’s not like we have a lot of time with them – is stage presence, and how to carry yourself, and how to perform, and how your body language conveys the emotion that’s coming through your voice, all of those things.”

Despite the saturation of aspiring singers on social media, and how difficult it is to break into the music industry as a regular person from the UK, will.i.am says he still believes that “every day a star is born.”

“Every year someone realises they can fix themselves through the world of music, shed light and inspire other folks,” says will.i.am, whose hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas enjoyed enormous success, including their 2003 single Where Is the Love? topping the charts in 13 countries and becoming Britain’s biggest-selling single of 2003.

“When you realise that you can bring your own self joy… In the process you can bring joy to other people, providing them with an escape.”

l The Voice UK returns on Saturday August 31 at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.