Reba Knows She Has ‘Big Boots’ To Fill On ‘The Voice’

Reba McEntire was announced as the coach who will replace Blake Shelton on Season 24 of NBC's The Voice. Reba mentored Blake Shelton's team this season, causing some to speculate that she might become a coach. Other Season 24 Voice coaches are Niall Horan, Gwen Stefani, and John Legend.

Walking The Voice red carpet that same night, Reba talked about her new position to People, "The country lane — I'm taking over for Blake, so I'm gonna represent country music. He's got big boots. I don't know what size those boots are, but they're big, so I'm gonna really work hard to make him proud."

Reba knows she has some real competition from Shelton's wife, Gwen Stefani, who will also compete as a Coach in Season 24. She said, "I do understand that I need to go razzle-dazzle with Gwen being on there. Gwen's always got the nicest outfits, so I really need to step up my game on that."

Season 24 will be McEntire's first time in the Coaches chair, but this is far from McEntire's debut on The Voice. Not only is she the Mega Mentor on Season 23 of The Voice, but she also served as a Battle Advisor to Team Blake back in Season 1.

Reba said that while she has been on the show, she still has a lot of catching up to do. She offered, "John and Niall [are] all really funny and clever, and always have so many smart things to say, so I've got my work cut out for me. I'm most excited about basically getting started, and I'm sure that I'll have lots of help, lots of advice, lots of people coming around saying, 'You can do this. You can do that.' And I'm not afraid at all. I think it'll be a very fun adventure."

Reba McEntire's songs have been the backbone of country music since the early 1980s. Reba has scored more than 20 number-one hits in her storied career and is considered one of the Queens of Country Music, alongside other Queens like Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

In 2024, Reba has outdone herself and now appears on national TV weekly as a coach for NBC's The Voice. In early February of this year (2024), she sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl flawlessly and gracefully. She showed everyone in the world that she still has it as she approaches her 70s, celebrating her 69th birthday today (3/28).

She recently chatted with CMT and shared one of her most embarrassing moments on stage with them. CMT posted the fun interview clip on their Instagram.

In the clip, Reba is asked what her most embarrassing moment was. She quipped, "Oh gosh, how much time do you have?" The country icon recalled, "It was the early '80s, and I was headlining. I was going to make my way to stage right, and blue lights were gonna come on."

She continued, "I was gonna walk back on stage and sing 'Sweet Dreams' acapella. I did not remember this monitor being there on the floor, so when I was shuffling my way off stage right, I shuffled my toes right underneath that monitor and fell over on top of it."

She continued, "I crawled off stage and ripped my britches, but the show must go on so I dusted myself off and put my hand over where I ripped my britches. I came back out and did the song, and nobody knew the difference."

I have interviewed and spent a lot of time with Reba during my career as a country music journalist. Since the 1990s, I have discovered that Reba is a positive and very nice person. When you are around her, you forget she is a music icon because of how genuine and really down-to-earth she is.

In one of my most recent interviews with Reba, I told her about this list and asked what her top five Reba songs were; her response as she used her fingers to count, "' Fancy,' 'Is There Life Out There,' 'I'm A Survivor,' 'Can't Even Get The Blues,' 'Take It Back,' and 'Why Haven't I Heard From You,' that's six and 'Georgia,' ('The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia') 'Georgia' has to be in there too, that's seven."

And yes, "Fancy" would be her number-one song. She offered, "I just love story songs."

To celebrate her 69th birthday today (3/28), we dove deep into Reba's catalog to rate what we think are her 40 best songs.