As soon as it was announced that Adam Levine was returning for The Voice’s 27th season on the 2025 TV schedule, it felt like John Legend would be a worthy adversary for the singer who appeared on each of the first 16 seasons before stepping away. That really has come to fruition as the Blind Auditions are set to wrap up, and the EGOT winner had an amusing comment about their shared time on the singing competition.
The current season (available to stream with a Peacock subscription) is not the first time Adam Levine and John Legend have worked together. They crossed paths briefly in 2019 and, during an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Legend recalled a funny rumor about his and Levine’s time on the show, saying:
So the last season he was on was Season 16, which was my first season, so some say I’m responsible for getting rid of him, but it wasn’t me. But he’s back, so we’re the OGs now.
It’s funny to think that John Legend — who’s often pretty soft-spoken, especially in comparison to the other Voice coaches — would have had a hand in getting Adam Levine kicked off of The Voice, just because the Maroon 5 singer was exiting just as Legend made his debut.
Now, John Legend is in his 10th season on the show and, while fans are excited that Adam Levine is back, the “All of Me” singer may not love all of him. Legend has established a reputation as something of a Four-Chair King, who’s able to win over artists who got all four coaches to turn their chairs and are therefore able to choose from all four celebrity mentors.
However, Adam Levine possesses a legacy of winning, boasting three wins over 16 seasons to John Legend’s sole victory. That’s an attractive quality for the incoming Season 27 contestants, and of the seven Four-Chair Turns we’ve seen through the first four nights of Blind Auditions, Levine has gotten five of them, with Legend taking the other two (one of whom he had to block Adam from).
The singers’ history on The Voice actually goes back even further than Season 16, as John Legend served as an advisor for Team Adam in Season 12. They talked about their history on the show and going up against Kelsea Ballerini and Michael Bublé in the video below:
Adam Levine and John Legend’s friendly rivalry will likely never reach the peaks that the Maroon 5 frontman saw with Blake Shelton. However, it is a pretty strange coincidence that Levine’s previous final season was Legend’s first.
If you want to see which one of these four will secure the Season 27 bragging rights, tune in for new episodes at 8 p.m. ET Mondays on NBC. The Blind Auditions are set to wrap up March 3, with the Battle round kicking off March 10.