Back in the Hot Seat! Christina Aguilera on Her Return to 'The Voice'

Christina Aguilera took two seasons off from “The Voice,” and it was time well spent. She got engaged to love Matt Rutler and welcomed daughter Summer Rain!

Now, she's ready to get back in the hot seat alongside fellow coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams for Season 8 of the hit NBC show.

ExtraTV.com caught up with Xtina at a "Voice” presser, and here's what she had to say:

Her best advice for contestants: “I want to see them shine, and I want to see them on that stage, I want them to live in that moment. I take them back to their childhood memory, like, 'Who did you love growing up? What was the record that made you want to be here in the first place? Take yourself back in that moment.' Screw all the cameras, screw all of us judges.”

How Aguilera can relate: “I had my fair share, you know, growing up in a competitive formatted show, "Star Search." I didn't win… [afterward] I wasn't handed a record deal, and the whole thing, and it's like, okay, off to the races. It's, like, that took years after that show aired, and I lost, to then make a career out of the rest of my life… those things in my back pocket, and parts of those colors that made my journey good and bad, that made me the fighter and the strong person I am today. So that's all I try to instill in [the contestants].”

How taking a break gave her a new perspective: “I remember the first time I took a break and Shakira and Usher stepped in, and I was able to watch as a viewer, like, the suspense when the lights go down, and, like, are they going to push, are they not… I got nervous all over again. I got excited that I wasn't in the hot seat to feel all that pressure, because it's a lot of pressure… it's a really interesting thing to take moments and time to reflect and grow as a person in real life, outside of the big red chair and come back and sort of see it with different eyes.”

[Credit: NBC]

Why Christina sees the show as a jumping off point for contestants: “Their journey is kind of just beginning. I mean, this is the training ground. I always consider my training ground to have been 'The Mickey Mouse Club' when I was 11 and 12. I didn't make a hit record at 13, 14. You know, I made "Genie in a Bottle," which was the start of my career, at 16, 17, which was years down the road… it's what they do with the coaching afterwards. And that could take a few years.”

What she's working on with Pharrell: “I wrote a lot during the pregnancy last year… living and experiencing and absorbing everything around me. And that's definitely going to show up on the album… I mean, there's always going to be soul in my music, because that's just naturally where I am inspired. But I'm very interested in a song that Pharrell has, that, you know, we won't get into, but it's a very, very cool.”