Cee Lo and Maroon 5's Adam Levine Could Be Judges for New NBC Singing Competition

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Cee Lo Green and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine are in talks with producer Mark Burnett to become judges on NBC's new singing competition The Voice. Deals have not yet been struck, but according to Entertainment Weekly, NBC hopes to sign contracts with the singers later this week.

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The producers are also reportedly in talks with a high-profile female singer – reportedly Christina Aguilera – to join the panel of judges.

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The Voice, an American version of a Dutch singing competition series, is set to debut later this year with host Carson Daly. The main difference between The Voice and other singing competitions such as American Idol and The X-Factor is a unique audition process in which the judges cannot see the singers as they perform, allowing them to assess the contestants purely on their skill as vocalists.

Cee-Lo Green, Maroon 5 singer in talks to judge Mark Burnett's NBC singing competition -- EXCLUSIVE [EW.com]

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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