Country music fans feel thrilled that Keith Urban is joining The Voice as a mega mentor. However, American Idol viewers may be wondering why Urban hopped competitions.
As a former judge, Urban still has a lot of love for American Idol. He even appeared as a guest mentor for Season 21 of the show. However, he's moving over to The Voice, another show he previously helped out with. It's because producers from The Voice asked him to.
Urban was excited to accept their invite. In an interview via Country Now, Urban opened up about being a mentor on the show. He said, "So, when The Voice here in the States asked me to come and be a mentor and now a Mega Mentor, whatever that means — I feel like a Transformer. I jumped at the opportunity. Because the mentoring part I particularly love. I love that the most. I love being able to try and help an artist navigate some things they've got to work on and try and be constructive and helpful but also do it in a supportive way. Nobody wants to get humiliated in front of people, but you do need honest advice as well, so I love that opportunity
Keith Urban Reflects on Childhood
Urban knows exactly how vulnerable the contestants feel on the show. The country singer started competing in TV musical competitions when he was only a child. He still remembers how it felt.
"The first one I did I was 9 years old and my mom and dad got me on to a TV show called Pot of Gold. It was a singing competition show with three judges, one of whom was just a really unfiltered, unapologetic, vicious, scathing kind of judge," Urban said.
Urban said he remembers how the harsh criticism from one judge was, but he was also thankful for the good feedback that he got as well.
"This was a long time before Simon Cowell's template. This guy had it nailed, and at 9 years old I was subjected to this, and I got kind of crucified by this judge. It didn't faze me, you know? And then I went on other shows after that, but my experience with all of those was really loving good feedback, constructive feedback, even if it was something I needed to work on. I remember the judge telling me to kindly learn how to sing in tune."
Speaking with Billboard about American Idol, Urban previously opened up about what it means to be a good mentor. He said, "I think song choice has been key.... I think what I am gonna try and do is find things that really play to their strengths. It's such an interesting balancing act, with songs that you love but maybe they don't play to your strengths, so trying to find something that's going to really have them shine will be key for me."
