Taylor Swift to appear on 'The Voice' as advisor
Taylor Swift arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Inglewood, Calif. Credit: AP / Matt Sayles
Taylor Swift certainly has a voice and knows how to use it . . . and appropriately, she's now using it on "The Voice."
In the week of the debut of her fifth album, "1989," the hugely popular and successful singer-songwriter joins the NBC talent competition. She'll appear in the Knockout Round episodes airing Monday and Tuesday (and also on Monday, Nov. 3), as the sole adviser to the aspiring artists chosen by this season's mentor/judges: Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams.
"Things are insanely cool right now," Swift says with what passes for a giggle. "I can't complain." That encompasses her "Voice" stint, of which she reports, "I didn't know anything about what I would have to be doing before I showed up. I felt a little scared about telling people what to do, because I've never felt comfortable critiquing other people."
However, Swift notes she found the Carson Daly-hosted program "so much different than what I had expected. These people have already gotten to a level in the competition where pretty much everyone you're seeing is incredibly talented. In my case, I was just giving them very detailed pointers. I wasn't there to tell them, 'Just have more confidence,' I'd tell them exactly how to look like they have more confidence."
The results, Swift believes, indicate "how built for this business they are. Some people are willing to make a compromise and work with you and build a really creative and exciting performance visually . . . then some people clearly are going to do it their way, whether right or wrong."
Named for the year Swift was born, "1989" already has yielded the massive hit "Shake It Off." The performer of numerous country-crossover tunes says her "leap to pop music really scared a lot of people in my camp, but if you're not challenging yourself fully, I don't see the point. Treading water, or becoming complacent, really isn't on my list of options."
Still, Swift admits she's been somewhat astonished by the impact of "Shake It Off," not only for the reign it's had on the pop charts -- where it debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 -- but for the diverse effects of its move-past-negativity message and sheer danceability.
"I get people coming up to me and saying things from, 'I had a death in the family and "Shake It Off" was the only thing that could make me smile' to the simplicity of, 'My 7-year-old wants to hear it over and over again in the car.' To have a song that exists in so many different places was a dream of mine."
