Keith Urban Joins The Voice As The New Mega Mentor

Keith Urban joins The Voice! NBC's The Voice announced today (3/25) that Keith Urban would serve as the mega mentor on Season 25.

Season 25, which premiered on February 26, features coaches Chance the Rapper, Dan + Shay, John Legend, and Reba McEntire. Urban will begin mentoring beginning with the April 8 episode.

Keith previously appeared on The Voice as an adviser to coach Blake Shelton during Season 15. He also served as a coach in the Australian version of The Voice for Seasons 1, 10, and 11.

Urban is set to release his 12th studio album later in 2024. The project, for which a title has yet to be announced, will include the already released singles "Straight Line" and "Messed Up As Me."

In mentoring artists on The Voice, the country superstar will no doubt be talking about live performance and how to win over your audience. Keith himself is an artist who likes to feed off of his crowd each and every night.

As Keith told us in a recent interview, not all music artists, including one of his close friends in music, are that way. He explained,
"I was on the phone with a very well-known artist friend of mine last year. He posed a question to me, 'If you could play arenas for the rest of your life, but they're only fifty percent full, would you still want to go on tour?' And I said, 'Well, I have a follow-up question. What kind of people are in the fifty percent?' And he said, 'Well, does that matter?' And I said, 'Yeah, it really matters; if the entire fifty percent of them are sitting, watching the show like it's a Ted Talk, I probably wouldn't want to do that.'"

Urban added, "I need energy. I give the audience energy, and I hope that they give it back to me and I give it back to them. That's how I like to play."

Keith continued, "I said, 'Does that not matter to you?' and he said, 'No, I couldn't care less. It doesn't make any difference.' He said, 'I'm a snow globe; you just watch what I do. However you want to watch it doesn't bother me in the least.' Which I thought was interesting, but that artist was true to who he was and how he liked to perform, just as I was. So we learned something about each other in that conversation."

He concluded, "Some artists are a snow globe. I'm definitely not. I like participation."

Keith Urban celebrates his 56th birthday today (10/26). Keith has enjoyed a long and storied career, winning countless awards and performing for fans for many years. He is a good friend to many in the industry and always steps up when someone needs a helping hand or wants to collaborate.

Urban was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame earlier this month (10/11). He received the honor along with Kix Brooks, David Lee Murphy, Casey Beathard, and Rafe Van Hoy. Dolly Parton introduced and talked about Keith at the event.

Before he was inducted, Keith told us, "Being invited into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame is hands down one of the highest honors that's ever happened to me. I've always loved writing songs. I've always loved great songwriters, and this is a songwriting town."

He added, "The song is the very first thing. To be in this group, this incredible group of songwriters is a bit surreal. Honestly, it's probably still sinking in."

Urban was thrilled to be inducted alongside many of his friends, especially Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn. Brooks was a champion of Keith's in the early days of his Nashville career. He offered, "This particular group, this Class of '23, is surreal. I know all of these guys; Casey Beathard is the only guy that I haven't really met, but I've known David Lee Murphy for a long time, Rafe Van Hoy, Kix Brooks, of course."

He explained, "Kix is like my brother from another mother. He was one of the first people in town to really get behind what I was doing. I had a band at the time called The Ranch, and Kix came and saw us play in a tiny little club. (He) invited us to go out and open some shows for Brooks & Dunn even before we ever had any music out. We had nothing on the radio. He was just a great believer of mine. So to be inducted in the same year that Kix is particularly sweet."

Keith has released many music videos throughout his career. To celebrate his birthday, we picked six videos that everyone must see.

The video begins with shots of various wreckage bobbing along the water's surface, including a guitar, a telephone, sheet music, and other items. Urban is out on the water, using a bobbing sofa as a life raft as he floats along. Then, back on shore, Pink sits alone on the beach, looking out to sea. Keith said of Pink when the song came out, "I've always loved Pink's voice, but her artistry and her multi-faceted ability to create, and her God-given talent, truly makes her one of the greatest voices of our time."

This duet with Carrie Underwood was a massive hit for Urban in 2017. The two also sang it together on a couple of award shows that year. The video which shows him and Underwood singing together while a young woman, who looks a lot like Carrie but is not, dances around. This video is one of his biggest ones and has over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

To promote his song "The Fighter" in 2017, Keith playfully joins his wife Nicole Kidman in their car while the song plays, and they sing it together. Urban has said the song was written about his relationship with Nicole. That video, which was shot on a phone that sat on the dashboard, has been viewed over ten million times. It starts with Kidman saying when she hears the guitar intro, "Oh my gosh, I love this song!"

This was one of Keith's first official music videos and it's from his first number-one song. The video shows a very young and handsome Urban sitting in a house and singing the song's lyrics in front of a fireplace. He also walks down a city street at night.

This video really captures the feel of the song (which Keith co-wrote). He said to fans on Instagram when it came out, "To all of the lost ones who aren't really lost ones, this song is for you. We are WILD HEARTS!" Urban told us of the song, "I'm here to tell you anything can happen in this life if you got the heart and the passion and a God-lit fire inside."

This song is what Keith says was the turning point in his career when it shot to number one on the country charts in 2002. He said, "'Somebody Like You' was one of the most important songs for me that happened and, to a large degree, just sent my career into a whole different speed in a really wonderful way." The video for the song is also visually stunning, showing Urban playing guitar and banjo and singing in the wild while the sun glares through his silhouette.