Jessie J to Judge on 'The Voice' in U.K.

Jessie J performs at VIP Room Theatre in Paris.

Marc Piasecki/WireImage

Pop singer Jessie J has signed on to be a mentor in the British version of The Voice, which is set to debut on BBC One in the spring. J, who attended the prestigious BRIT School for aspiring pop stars and has scored international hits with the songs "Price Tag" and "Do It Like A Dude," is the first of the four judge/mentors to be announced thus far.

Photos: Random Notes
J announced her involvement with The Voice on the Chris Moyles Show on Radio 1 yesterday. "One of the reasons that I love it is because it is a coach," she told Moyles. "This is the first talent show that focuses on what really matters when you're a singer. It's all about the voice. It's not telling someone whether they're good or not. It's helping them find their voice and who they are and making it something that they could give to the world."

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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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