IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Shakira: I'd 'get kicked out the first week' as a 'Voice' contestant

Shakira may be a great coach on “The Voice,” but the Grammy winner told TODAY she thinks she’d have made a lousy contestant had she tried out for the show early in her career.“I would probably get kicked out the first week,” she said during a recent press event for the show. “I think that 20 years ago, if there would have been a show like ‘The Voice,’ I don’t know if I would have
Image: Shakira
HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 03: Recording artist Shakira attends NBC's \"The Voice\" Red Carpet Event at The Sayers Club on April 3, 2014 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
Image: Shakira
Shakira may have an amazing set of pipes, but she doesn't think she'd have made it past week one on \"The Voice\" as a contestant.Frederick M. Brown / Today

Shakira may be a great coach on “The Voice,” but the Grammy winner told TODAY she thinks she’d have made a lousy contestant had she tried out for the show early in her career.

“I would probably get kicked out the first week,” she said during a recent press event for the show. “I think that 20 years ago, if there would have been a show like ‘The Voice,’ I don’t know if I would have made it to the finals.”

While Shakira, who has sold more than 60 million albums over the course of her career, feels confident in her singing ability, she said that it took a lot of work to get herself to where she is today as an artist.

“I needed time to finesse my talent, to evolve as an artist and figure out my own path,” she said. “What (the show’s contestants) do there is so courageous, and they have to go through so much and it’s nerve-racking!”

Her fellow coach Usher said that he would have jumped at the chance to go on “The Voice” had it been around when he was first starting his career.

“There aren’t any other shows that go through the process (of artist development) quite the way ‘The Voice’ does,” he told TODAY. “If we had that luxury when we first started to go through the process ... I would have loved to have been part of this show.”

The R&B star added that becoming a coach on “The Voice” has helped him revisit the important moments he had early in his singing career.

“We’re kind of reliving all of the passion of what being an artist is about,” he said. “It just reminds me, ‘Man I remember the first time the light bulb went on,’ or of a certain hurdle that I had to jump over (when I was starting out).”

The two coaches said that they are always surprised at how well the contestants do despite the fact that many of them are relatively new to the music industry.

“Sometimes I’m in awe of the amount of talent America has,” Shakira said. “It’s really unbelievable. They do an amazing job and sing like professionals. We have very little coaching to do there!”

"The Voice" airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.