The Voice

Watching The Voice on TV, Delta Goodrem, one of the show’s four celebrity coaches, is currently sporting her trademark long hair for the blind auditions stage. But by the time it comes to the live shows, audiences will see a new look from Delta as she recently had a dramatic haircut and is now modelling a lob style. She stepped out to a recording studio in LA with her new hair on Tuesday and also posted a close-up photo of her new look on Instagram. In LA she’s also been catching up and working with Michael Bolton, saying on social media that they have “exciting things to share with everyone.”

The second season of The Voice returned to Channel Nine on Sunday night and has been experiencing high ratings, much like its debut last year. The talent-finding show was also recognised at the Logies when it won most popular light entertainment program and most popular new male talent for Joel Madden.

Last year it was Seal and Delta Goodrem who represented the coaches from The Voice at the Logies on the night the show premiered on TV. This year it was Joel Madden, who was also nominated in the most popular new male talent category for his work on the series. He just won the Logie, beating David Campbell, Alex Williams, Robert Irwin and Will McDonald. He thanked Australia for being so accepting for him and his family during his speech, and paid tribute to his fellow coaches, including newcomer Ricky Martin and former coach Keith Urban. He also laughed during Hamish Blake and Andy Lee’s opening act, when they made their entrance on red spinning chair mobiles that zipped around the stage.

Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Seal represented the Australian version of The Voice at the premiere of the US show’s fourth season in Hollywood last night (Ricky Martin wasn’t with them). They posed together on the red carpet and did some interviews with American media. When asked by Access Hollywood what could be expected from the second series of the Aussie show, which premieres on April 7, Joel joked that he’ll be “freaking out the whole time! There’s a lot of action, there’s explosions, there’s a lot of fake blood,” while Delta added, “We go all out in Australia. We really go to town.” Joel, Delta and Seal have a bit of downtime before the live shows pick up again, with Delta explaining, “We just did our battles so we’re going back for our lives [shows] in about a month. We’ve got really great talent in Oz this year — all the really arty-artists came out this year so we’re having a lot of fun with them.”

Seal also offered his two cents about the new mix of coaches on the US show this season — Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green are off the panel to focus on their music, and Shakira and Usher are taking their place. Seal said, “On paper it sounds good. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.” Christina and Usher were also on the red carpet last night, as was Blake Shelton with his wife Miranda Lambert.

Two coaches from The Voice touched down in Sydney this morning to resume work on the hit show. Ricky Martin held the hands of his four-year-old twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, and shared with his Twitter followers how he got through the long flight: with the help of Sesame Street activity books! His fellow coach Seal arrived solo as his kids are with their mother, his ex-wife Heidi Klum, in Brentwood. Delta Goodrem is already in the country and performed at the Mardi Gras after party on the weekend, while Joel Madden is on his way.

This week the battle rounds will be taped, the stage where the coaches pit two of their acts against each other in a duet-like sing-off. ‘Mentors’ are assigned to the coaches for this phase of the competition and at the end of last week four new mentors were announced for the 2013 season: Jessica Mauboy, Connie Mitchell, Ben Lee and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.

The Voice is shaking up its panel of mentors in 2013, the musicians who will assist coaches Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Ricky Martin when the show reaches the battle round phase. The mentors don’t have a huge role and are only on set for a couple of weeks, but their contribution to the show includes preparing contestants for performances and helping the coaches decide who they’re going to take through to the live shows. Check out who the show has signed as a mentor this year, as well as who they’re supporting and who they replaced. The Voice will return on Channel Nine after Easter.