USHER TO REPLACE CEE LO GREEN ON THE VOICE NEXT SEASON!

It’s a new twist on musical chairs.

Hip-shaking superstar Shakira and Usher will replace Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green next spring on “The Voice” when the talent competition returns to NBC for its fourth season, reports Us Weekly.

Aguilera is expected to focus on touring and promotional duties for the release of her new album, “Lotus.”

Usher performs at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on June 1, 2011.

Green is working with NBC on a new show of his own.

It was not clear yesterday if the pair will return to “The Voice,” but their fellow music industry mentors for the past two seasons, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, are expected to stay on.

NBC officials and reps for the “Voice” mentors declined to comment.

Despite her success on the show, Aguilera said earlier this month that she originally saw her TV job as moonlighting from her music career. She told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show that it was initially just “kind of a side project.”

She said she thought, “It’ll keep me close to my son [Max, 4] in Los Angeles. “I don’t have to travel,” the five-time Grammy Award winner told Seacrest.

“Then it kind of took off, and there goes my free time!” she said.

The current season of “The Voice” started last week and has pitted Aguilera against her longtime pop-star rival, Britney Spears, who stars as a judge on Fox’s “X Factor.”

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