By Bene Viera. For Robin Thicke Mary J. Blige and Method Man’s collaboration on “All I Need” changed his perspective on duets forever. He probably never imagined he’d think of performing it as a judge on ABC’s Duets, which he ultimately decided against. When charged with finding partners for the show, Thicke was looking for some pretty specific requirements. We’ll give you a hint. His partner had to be a woman. We caught up with the R&B singer to find out what the must-haves on his list were. In addition to being a woman, Thicke specifically wanted a singer who loves soul music. “The qualities I was looking for were: number one, I wanted them to sing with passion, sing with soul,” he said.
“I love soul music, and most of the songs that I want to do are going to be based in soul music.” Thicke said it was also important to find a person he meshed well with in terms of timing, riffs and tone. “You have to have that chemistry and create that magic on stage,” he said. Chemistry is precisely why he preferred two women as duet partners. “I selected two beautiful young girls because I found it hard to look in a guy’s eyes and sing love songs,” he joked. We’re a little bummed the “Ebony & Ivory” duet performed by Thicke and John Legend will never happen. How awesome would that have been? To find out what duets Thicke will perform tune in to Duets on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.