"The Voice," as its title implies, is supposed to be about singing and nothing else. That's why "blind auditions" are employed with the coaches' rotating chairs turned away from the stage as contestants are chosen strictly from what the coaches hear.
Not so, said former coach Christina Aguilera in an interview with Billboard.
"It became something that I didn't feel was what I had signed up for in season one," she said. "You realize it's not about music. It's about making good TV moments and massaging a story.
"I didn't get into this business to be a television show host and to be given all these (rules). Especially as a female: You can't wear this, can't say that. I would find myself on that show desperately trying to express myself through clothing or makeup or hair. It was my only kind of outlet."
Aguilera, 37, was part of the original cast along with fellow coaches Adam Levin, CeeLoo Green and Blake Shelton, and host Carson Daly. She appeared from 2011-16, but said she has no desire to return to the show, which she described as an "energy sucker" and a "churning hamster wheel."
"I was longing for freedom," she said.
She added that coming home from the set she "would just take everything off _ the makeup, all of it _ and would blast hip-hop, or Nirvana, 'Creep,' Slayer. Anything like that to get me out of that zone, that TV mode."
Now that she's been able to shed "The Voice," Aguilera is free to concentrate on her own, big voice. She'll be dropping "Liberation," her first new album in six years, in June and then embark on her first tour in a decade.
Aguilera, mother to 10-year-old son Max and 3-year-old daughter Summer Rain, says she's ready to step out of her comfort zone.
"Touring is so frightening to me, because I am a mom first," she said. "It's part of why I stayed in the position I was (at The Voice). It's easy to get comfortable and cushy in the same place and not have to worry about uprooting your kids. I've been putting myself on the back burner."
Billboard said Aguilera is as excited as she has been about her career for years, and is looking into possibly recording a Latin album, acting in more movies and perhaps a Broadway stint.
