Why The Voice Really Cancelled Christina's Duet With Whitney Houston's Hologram

Over the last few years, hologram technology has allowed artists to spice up performances on the stage by seemingly bringing people back to life. Michael Jackson appeared in hologram form at the Billboard musical awards. Tupac made an impromptu appearance at Coachella. Recently, we learned that NBC’s The Voice had a special hologram appearance featuring Whitney Houston planned, but unfortunately, we won’t get to see what a Whitney hologram might look like on the small screen. Reports this weekend indicate Houston’s family ultimately decided to cut the hologram due to concerns about its quality. More below.

Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston were reportedly set to sing a medley of the late singer’s hits, but Whitney’s family eventually put the kibosh on the whole deal because the hologram wasn’t up to snuff. In fact, her family is saying the hologram simply looked nothing like Whitney Houston and thus did not earn their stamp of approval, meaning this had nothing to do with the performance itself. Telling NBC to shove off? That’s some real power.

If you've been keeping tabs on the series, rumors over the past few days had been swirling regarding a proposed duet between Whitney Houston and The Voice’s judge Christina Aguilera. Aguilera’s performed on the NBC singing competition numerous times during its run, so that’s old hat, but throwing in a hologram of a deceased diva singer meant The Voice had our attention. Unfortunately, TMZ is now confirming the rumors that a hologram performance was planned on the NBC series, but unfortunately, we won’t actually get to see it.

The “surprise” was set for this Monday’s finale of The Voice, meaning I bet there are some creative types scrambling to figure out what else to do to make the Season 10 finale a little more special than the average episode. I don’t know how long it takes to achieve the hologram effects, but theoretically, there are a lot of dead singers that would be awesome to see Christina Aguilera duet with should their families wish to see said artists live on in that sort of capacity. I'm guessing this might be a gimmick we may need to wait until at least next season for, however.

The Voice finale airs Monday night at 8 p.m. ET, only on NBC. Don't fret though, the veteran series has already been renewed for Season 11, and Miley Cyrus will feature prominently as a judge. Whether or whether not a hologram will make an appearance remains to be seen.

For now, if you want to find out what the networks have coming up this summer after all our regular programs have ended, you can check out our summer TV premiere schedule.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.