Why Simone Biles is now a mentor on ‘The Voice’

After her historic run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles is attempting a new form of competition. The 27-year-old, 11-time Olympic medalist made his debut as a playoff consultant on NBC’s The voice On Monday, Snoop Dogg’s team of vocalists offers advice. The show’s latest round of playoff advisers also includes country singers Lainey Wilson and Carly Pearce. Snoop, a first-time singing competition coach, recruited Biles to mentor the vocalists. But since the spring native is not a professional singer, some viewers were left scratching their heads with the casting choice.

When Biles was announced as a playoff adviser for Team Snoop on Thursday, viewers took to social media to express their confusion. “How does this make sense? Lol,” one person asked during NBC’s announcement on Instagram. “I actually feel sorry for the contestants on this team… they don’t get any credible music advice from an experienced musician like the other teams,” another person added. “So this must mean Snoop is going to (be) the next coach for Team USA gymnastics,” read another comment.

Others, however, came to Biles’ defense, including The voice season 23 finalist Noivas Wright.”People don’t realize that Simone can actually give great advice on performance, routine, stage presence and confidence,” Wright wrote. “It’s not just about the ‘voice’. They can already sing, they don’t need advice on it… trust me, I would know, as a performer from the show.” Another wrote: “This makes total sense when you realize these people already can SING and what they need is training in stage presence, confidence and performance, which she is an expert at.”

In a recent interview with Associated Press ahead of the episode, Snoop explained that he tapped Biles to join him on the show after they joined for the 2024 Paris Olympics. “We have such different careers. But the things we dealt with, they deal join now,” the rap legend told the AP. “We have the best experience and knowledge to give to these artists. She’s a performer. I’m a performer. We’ve performed under extreme conditions. We always do our best. But sometimes things happen behind closed doors that you don’t do. so we are able to speak to those things and give them real reassurance.”

Biles noted how she and Snoop “were able to riff off each other” and give contestants insight into their next round. “It was pretty easy, simple,” she told the AP. “We’re both very soft. But if we need to get that energy up, we can. For us it was about building confidence for the next week.”

Although not a singer herself, she told the AP she felt she could relate to the artists as competitors. “These are the learning steps: learn, process, enter and work,” she said. “They all have that vocal talent. It’s about harnessing it, knowing when to bring it out and what songs to sing and what genre you fit into. And what you want your legacy to be.”