It was after rapper Isaiah Lugo-Hale’s audition, when both the British songstress, Rita Ora and our own Aussie singer, Jessica Mauboy, were competing with each other to get him on their team as part of The Voice TV show.
Jess chose to burst into song in an attempt to win over Isaiah and clearly annoyed with this play for his attention, a fed-up Rita snapped: “We can all sing, Jess!”
This is not the first time it’s become heated at the judges panel on the TV show, The Voice, because the judges are competing with each other to get the best contestants on their teams and the stakes are high so each judge attempts any foil they think will get the contestant to choose them as their judge.
Singing to contestants when she’s pitching to them is something Jess has done multiple times over the course of the show so far and sometimes it’s worked to her advantage – and sometimes not.
This time, perhaps it didn’t. Rita followed up yelling: “What else you got? What else you got? And then Jess merely smiled and asked Isaiah: “Do you like it?”
Isaiah ended up choosing Rita to be his judge for the duration of the show.
Fans were both for and against Jess’s singing antics
From the social media posts which followed, there were fans who sided with Rita and others who sided with Jess.
Viewers took to Twitter to share their opinion, with one writing ‘as much as I like her, I’m getting a bit sick of Jess singing during her pitches.’
‘Even Rita hates when Jess sings,’ another pointed out, while a third wrote: ‘I wonder if Jess sing-talks to her family and friends too.’
‘Drinking game where you drink every time Jessica Mauboy sings to win a pitch and it doesn’t work, and you’re drunk,’ another joked, while a fifth said: ‘OK but why does Jess sing absolutely EVERYTHING.’
But others were quick to stick up for the Jess, with one fan writing: ‘Y’all getting mad at Jess for singing when you’re forgetting the title of the show is The Voice – let her sing it ain’t that deep!’
When Isaiah chose Rita Ora as his coach, she was was ecstatic with his decision.
“We’re going to kill this! We’re going to surprise everybody. Let’s go!” she said.
Photo: Courtesy Channel 7
This article first appeared on Over60.