Reba McEntire‘s music and career worlds collided during a recent performance. The Country Music Hall of Fame member performed her current single, “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” while on The Voice, where she is serving as a coach for her first season.
The song is the only original from her just-released Not That Fancy record. McEntire closed her performance of the song by saying, “Oh, I miss you, Mama,” as a picture of her mother, Jacqueline, appeared behind her.
McEntire’s mother passed away in early 2020. She chose a woman in the official “Seven Minutes in Heaven” video who resembled her mother, as a way to honor her and her memory.
“She did great,” McEntire told Everything Nash and other outlets during a recent media event, praising the actress named Eleanor. “And she was a sweetheart to get to work with. That is exactly what I thought it would look like if I went to Heaven. And with the smoke coming in and out, it made it look really heavenly.
“I thought it would be something familiar, something that you’d feel comfortable with,” she added. “God thinks of everything. And so to walk up to the booth and the next time I walk up, and Mama’s there, and I put my arms on her shoulders … Eleanor’s hands were very similar to Mama’s when she was young. So that got me too.”
The 68-year-old is enjoying being on The Voice with Gwen Stefani, John Legend and Niall Horan, showing a different side of her as an entertainer than when she is singing on stage.
“It is a different part of me coming out because it’s non-scripted,” McEntire explained. “It is. You just go have fun, which I like to do that. And cutting up with Niall and Gwen and John, and jabbing them and doing that competitive thing, it is just hysterical. And they come up with some of the funniest skits for us to get to do. So it just brought out my personality that a lot of people haven’t seen. If you see a concert, you’ll see a little bit of it. It’s just me being a me.”
Although she had appeared on The Voice in the past, alongside former coach Blake Shelton, McEntire admitted she was ill-prepared for how fond she would be of the aspiring singers on her own team.
“What surprises me more than anything is how attached you get to the contestants,” McEntire said. You work with them, and then you’re gonna have to let one of them go … I don’t like sending anybody home. I don’t like this part. [I said], ‘Let’s change the rules.’ Everybody laughed. You can’t do that. But I think that’s what I really was the most shocked at, how attached you get to these contestants.”
Find all of McEntire’s music, including “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” at Reba.com.
Read ‘Reba McEntire: 11 Things to Know About the Country Music Legend’ here.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of NBC