The Voice season 12: Is Alicia Keys leaving?

Is Alicia Keys leaving The Voice after season 12? While she’s been an integral part of the past two editions of the show, she seems ready to walk away.

Speaking out in the latest edition of TV Guide Magazine (via TVInsider), Keys made it clear that she plans on departing after this season. This decision also seems to be informing what her philosophy is about the final weeks of the show:

“I am excited for this; it’s like a finale for me. That’s why I’m so passionate about my team.”

If this sticks, this ultimately is something that is both surprising and unsurprising at the same exact time. Over the course of the series’ run we’ve seen a rotating panel of various female coaches, while at the same time Adam Levine and Blake Shelton have been a part of the franchise since the beginning. They’ve both said over the years that they won’t ever take a season off while they are a part of it, and maybe that will hold firm. Ultimately, there’s a little bit of time still for everyone to figure some of that out given that we don’t see the franchise going anywhere in the near future.

The one thing that seems set in stone at the moment regarding the next season of The Voice is that Miley Cyrus will come back as a coach once more. Beyond that, there are question marks all over the place and it’s rather hard to really see where the show is going to go with their roster. We do think that they easily could pour a lot of money into getting a really big name on the panel, but sometimes it’s not about money so much as it is chemistry. Remember that Shelton wasn’t tremendously popular in the mainstream before signing up to do the show, and he’s now a huge staple of it and the most successful coach in its history. Christina Aguilera was arguably the big sell at the time it came out, and she hasn’t been a part of the show for a couple of seasons now.

If this does end up being the last season for Alicia Keys, what do you think about her exiting now? In addition, who do you think are the right replacements for her? Share in the comments below!

Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here in the event that you do want to acquire some further news and updates when it comes to the show. (Photo: NBC.)