NEW YORK – Before joining NBC's "The Voice," Adam Levine says some folks assumed he was some "singing bimbo that likes girls." So he's grateful to the show for providing a bit of clarification on his image.
"It was a nice opportunity to show my personality — that I have a brain," said the lead singer of Maroon 5. "It's also true: I am a bimbo and I like to sing and I like girls, but there's more to my personality; it's a little more dynamic than that, and I like to show that on the show. It's cool."
The singing competition — which also features Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton as music coaches — was a hit in its first season. The four coaches chose teams of eight after an audition process that allowed them only to hear the contestant's voice, but not to see them. Once teams were whittled down to one contestant for each coach, Levine's mentee — the crooner Javier Colon — was crowned the winner.
"The Voice" helped showcase the playful and sillier side of the heavily-inked Levine. Band keyboardist Jesse Carmichael says Levine's presence on the show "was so positive for him definitely as a person, but for us as a band, too."
Now, the group is taking advantage of the buzz: They recently released "Moves Like Jagger," which features "Voice" co-star Aguilera, and it will be the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 charts Thursday. It also hit No. 1 on the European and Canadian charts.
The dance song is a departure for the pop-rockers, and they say they're rushing to get a new album out this fall. In the past, the group released an album every three or four years.
"We're going to make it as quickly as we can (and) ride this wave of momentum," Levine said in an interview last week.
"That's too long," he explained about past breaks between records. "We can't do that anymore. We've got to keep moving."
The Grammy-winning group's 2002 debut, "Songs About Jane," sold 4.7 million units and they followed that with another multiplatinum-seller, 2006's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long." Last fall, they dropped their third album, the gold-selling "Hands All Over," which was re-released to feature "Jagger."
On Maroon 5's upcoming album, the group says they want to take a new direction. "Jagger" was produced Benny Blanco and Shellback, hitmakers for acts like Katy Perry, Ke$ha and Britney Spears.
"We can definitely stand to take more risks," Levine said. "It's awesome to have that little feeling in your stomach like, `Oh, this isn't safe, this isn't normal for us' ... (and) if you don't do that, I think you're dead a as band."
The second season of "The Voice" premieres after the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.
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Online:
http://www.maroon5.com/
http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/
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Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin
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