On NBC’s THE VOICE, the battle rounds continue tonight and the competition is going to be fierce. This season has seen not only the return of Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green, but also an influx of mega talented singers from a variety of genres. Country music may have dominated last season’s competition, not so much this go-around. After the jump, you’ll find a breakdown of the current teams, as well as some of the thoughts the competitors shared recently with theTVaddict regarding their experiences thus far.
The current team standings are:
Team Adam: Grey, Tessane Chin, Ashley Dubose, James Wolpert, Barry Black, Preston Pohl, James Irwin, Will Champlin, and Matt Cermanski
Team Blake: Nic Hawk, Shelbie Z, Briana Cuoco, Ray Boudreaux, E.G. Daily, Holly Henry, Austin Jenckes, Cilla Chan, Emily Randolph, Brian Pounds, and Brandon Chase
Team CeeLo: Caroline Pennell, Monika Leigh, Kat Robichaud, Cole Vosbury, Johnny Gray, George Horga, Jr., Juhi, Keaira LaShae, Shawn Smith, and Tamara Chauniece
Team Christina: Anthony Paul, Amber Nicole, Jacquie Lee, Matthew Schuler, Josh Logan, Matthew Schuler, Destinee Quinn, Lina Gaudenzi, Olivia Henken, Stephanie Anne Johnson, Michael Lynch
Shelbie Z’s Thoughts on Country Music’s Role in the Competition:
I know that Danielle Bradbury was on the last show. She’s a female country singer. But I do believe that, you know, I have something a little different because I think that the difference between me and Danielle is she’s more mainstream pop country and I’m more Outlaw old-school country.
So I think that there’s really not been a country singer like me on THE VOICE before as far as my style goes. So I think that that’s really what’s going to give me some flavor this year to push on and push through and I think that’s what’s going to really help me in klnockouts as well.
I honestly believe that country needs to go back to its roots. It needs to get back to the Hank Williams, Jr., you know, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette phase where county music was country music and country music told a story. It’s not just throwing a song together, oh, I’ve got to have a hit so I’ve got to throw this out there. I think it’s a little more than that.
You know, it’s about telling a story and letting people into your lives and write songs where people can communicate and can feel with you and can relate to things. And I honestly do want to stay true to my original Outlaw older country (feel).
Amber Nicole on her Strategy for the Knockout Round
I really want to improve on going to the knockouts, I have – my weaknesses are my nerves and breathing, actually, my most biggest two weaknesses. Nerves always kind of distract me in the beginning, you know, being quite honest.
Nerves are always something that I have to conquer while I’m performing. But that’s not something that always gets the best of me. Next – I mean, for knockouts, I really plan on just giving my all as I did in my battle rounds.
Just showing America and whoever’s watching that this is my time and I’m ready and I really look forward to just giving my all on the stage, pouring my heart out, showing the coaches who I really am and continue to show America why I’m here, you know, why I’m on THE VOICE.
Anthony Paul on Being Stolen By Christina
Going onto Christina’s team, I’m really looking forward to be able to use more of, like, my runs almost because that’s Christina’s thing, is the runs and riffs, whereas, when I was with CeeLo, you know, he really wanted me to draw it back a little bit, which I’m really happy he did because now I can pull it back when I need to and then I’m able to just go out there and do all the riffs that I need to. So I’m really just interested to see how Christina’s going to shape me into her perspective. And I’m really excited to see how different each coach is based on their teaching styles.
E.G. Daily on Being Mentored by Cher
She’s one of my mentors as far as people who have been continuing to do what she does for all these years. She goes from doing a movie to a record to a tour to a Vegas show. You know, to me that’s just like incredible. That is the ultimate in what my beliefs are about never giving up what you believe you’re supposed to be doing. She’s just – she’s one of my heroes. I was so happy to get to work with her.
I have this word in my song and she was very specific about it like, “You’re not holding it out. Play it out.” I think something about the fact that I do have this raspy thing at one point. Blake would say hold back and at one point Cher would say, “Just do it out. Do this rehearsal. Do it out. Go and blast it as far as you want to.” Because some of the things that I do is I tend to want to blast it, like really floor it all the time. And Blake was like no, let’s just taste it.
Cher was — one of the verses, she was like, “Just practice it completely full out,” which I thought was really cool. And then she said, “Then you can pull the song back. Then you can pull it back.” [S]he’s been doing this so long she’s really good at what she does. So it was great advice from someone who has done every medium of performing. It’s pretty incredible. 
