Jess Mauboy has a Voice win, new music and a wedding on her 2022 to-do list

Jess Mauboy has revealed more about when her nuptials will be as The Voice rockets ahead with an early ratings win.

There are loud voices in Jess Mauboy’s head every time she opens her mouth to critique the performance of a contestant on The Voice.

And it’s not the producers trying to tell her what to do.

It’s the echoes of comments she heard more than 15 years ago when she competed on Australian Idol to become runner-up to Damien Leith.

“Sometimes words can really, really hurt and people aren’t ready for that,” Mauboy says.

“I think about my own personal journey, thinking about Mark Holden and Kyle Sandilands at the time, and I saw one way of coaching and how that comes across.

Mauboy has found confidence in her voice as a talent coach. Picture: Channel 7

“I want to completely aware of how much this person on the stage, who is baring their soul, is going to be able to take because they might walk away and be like, ‘You know what? That just stuffed my whole dreams and I don’t think I ever want to do this again.’”

Mauboy likes to think of herself as the “hugging” coach on The Voice, which she joined last year when the talent quest was rebooted by the Seven Network after being ditched by Nine.

But the big surprise about Mauboy as a coach on the new-look panel featuring Guy Sebastian, Keith Urban and British pop star and television personality Rita Ora was the arrival of her Boss Lady persona.

The Voice coaches love to push each other’s buttons. Picture: Supplied.

The 32-year-old performer, who just completed her pandemic-delayed Boss Lady tour, bared her own competitive soul.

And her habit of breaking into song when she talks – she greets me by singing “Hello” – a quirk which caused Ora to snap when they were both pitching for an artist to join their team during last year’s season.

She admits she has adjusted her strategy for the 2022 series, preferring to give the artist the space to make their decision while also emphasising her natural nurturing instincts, the ones honed by growing up in a big family of five sisters and her extended First Nations family in Darwin.

Although she will admit she is far more aggressive as a coach on The Voice than she was as a contestant on Australian Idol.

“My approach this time around was more ‘Sister, brother, where’s your mob from?’” she says.

“I do think I learned last year how I’ve got to own everything I create in that space. I know I was ready to take on that role and genuinely excited about bringing the artist to life, encouraging them that they have the ability to win this.”

The Voice role came as Mauboy was at a crossroads in her pop career. She split from Sony, the label she was automatically signed to as a 16-year-old after her turn on Idol.

She signed with their rival Warner as that label embarked on an aggressive campaign of building its Australian artist roster and assembled a new team of management and creatives around her who would support her ambitions for the next stage of her career.

There’s a relaxed confidence about her that was absent before she made the changes but also a steely determination to get to work. She laughs as she insists now she is a model of punctuality; Mauboy used to be one of those people who was always late.

Mauboy has grown up in front of Australia since finishing second to Damien Leith on Idol in 2006. Picture: NCA.

“I guess when your priorities are right – and your life is right – you start to show up. You’re unafraid and unapologetic, you’re just confident,” she says.

“I think there were times when I wasn’t confident and I guess that made me feel I wasn’t ready for the next thing but being a coach blew my mind because it made me unpack this other power I didn’t know I had.”

Along with the Boss Lady persona has come a style makeover for Mauboy. The release of her single Glow last year – clocking up over three million streams since its release in November – as well as her outfits for The Voice announced a more urban vibe for the pop star.

She said she loves wandering around backstage ahead of filming to see what her fellow coaches are wearing.

“I love Rita’s style, that glam with a bit of grunge, a bit of rock star,” she says.

“I was genuinely allowed to just be myself which is a bit more urban now. And comfortable, no risk of wardrobe malfunctions! I think feeling confident in what you’re wearing, rather than the clothes wearing you, means I can relax and be myself and be present to what’s going on.”

Will Themeli Magripilis and Jessica Mauboy get married in 2022? Picture: Getty.

Besides a new single at some stage, a priority on Mauboy’s to-do list now borders have been opened around Australia is to plan her wedding to longtime partner Themeli Magripilis.

She is hopeful it will happen later this year.

“It’s wild because I’m in a bit of a tug of war because when I get the chance to plan a date, someone else in the family has already planned something else,” she says, laughing.

“There’s never going to be a right time, you just have to do it.

“But everything that has happened in my life has never really been to a plan so that’s my ideal way of getting things done.”

The Voice launches at 7pm on April 18.