Jake Hoot Returns to ‘The Voice,’ Duets With Kelly Clarkson on ‘I Would’ve Loved You’ [Watch]
Kelly Clarkson reunited with a former member of Team Kelly on Tuesday night's (May 18) episode of The Voice, inviting the show's Season 17 champ, Jake Hoot, to the stage. The pair performed their sweeping duet, "I Would've Loved You."
Sweeping harmonies and dramatic high notes peppered Clarkson and Hoot's Tuesday night performance, which they performed on The Voice stage backed by live strings and a dazzling light display.
The song appears on Hoot's January 2021 EP, Love Out of Time. He wrote it alongside collaborators Jamie Floyd and Lonestar keyboardist Dean Sams, and he explained when he released it that the song is "a story about someone who has so much love to give, but due to the other person's decisions, that love turns into a hate that lasts forever."
"When we wrote it, I said, 'I think this would be awesome if we got Kelly to sing on this,'" Hoot added. "When I was on The Voice, she said, 'Hey, let's do something together.' So I sent it to her and didn't hear anything. And then later on in the year, when we were seriously considering putting this on the album, I said, 'You know what? I'm just going to text her again.' … She called me back immediately, and she said, 'I want to shout this from the rooftops. Yes, I'm in.'"
When Hoot won The Voice back in 2019, it was Clarkson's third victory as a coach on the show. Since winning, he's released a number of country songs, including a sweet Father's Day tribute to his daughter called "Best Job I Ever Had" in 2020.
"She has helped me get out of my shell onstage, and I say in every interview: [She's] the biggest cheerleader, and that means more than you know. I really do appreciate it," Hoot says of Clarkson. "I continued to doubt myself and stuff like that, and Kelly continued to encourage me."
In late March, Hoot also appeared on Clarkson's talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, also to perform "I Would've Loved You."
Monday's night episode of The Voice revealed Season 20's Top 5 contestants, after viewer votes whittled the group down from nine to four at the top of the show. The remaining five performers vied for one Instant Save, rounding out the finale to five contestants.
The Voice airs on Monday and Tuesday nights on NBC.
See The Voice Stars, Then + Now: