Duets are some of the most popular country songs there are. But they do present one problem. If an artist wants to sing one of their duets live, they’re often left to do the whole thing on their own. Reason being? Their duet partner usually can’t travel with them to all of their concerts.
Thankfully, there are a few solutions to this conundrum. Artists can follow Carrie Underwood‘s lead and invite fans on stage to take the place of their duet partner.
That’s exactly what she did whenever she needed to sing “The Champion” on her Cry Pretty tour. She would have fans come up on stage and perform Ludacris’ rap in the song, since he was unable to tour with her.
Other artists are able to perform their duets by singing along with a video of their collaborator. That’s exactly what Blake Shelton did on his 2020 tour.
In December, Shelton and his girlfriend, Gwen Stefani, released a new duet. Titled “Nobody But You,” the track debuted at the ninth spot on the Hot Country Songs chart, making it Stefani’s first Top Ten country hit.
Before Shelton’s tour, the couple had previously only been able to perform the song live on one occasion…during the Grammy Awards in January.
Since Stefani was unable to join him on tour, Shelton found a way to be able to perform “Nobody But You” live. A video Stefani shared on Instagram shows the solution Shelton came up with, which involves him singing with a video of her.
The footage of Stefani was pulled from the couple’s music video for the song. Stefani’s image appears across giant screens set up on stage, and Shelton sings directly to them as if Stefani was standing in front of him.
It warmed Stefani’s heart to see Shelton’s performance, which she woke up to on Valentine’s Day morning.
“Pretty amazing to wake up to this on Valentine’s Day,” she wrote in the caption to the video she shared.
You can see how Shelton managed to pull off his live performance of “Nobody But You” by tuning in to that video below. He found a way to make Stefani part of the show even though she couldn’t be there in person!