Hayley Jensen finished fourth in the second season of Australian Idol. Ten years later, the former Canberran has decided to give another reality music show a go.

“It just felt like the right time,” she said of her decision to audition for WIN’s The Voice.

Since TV audiences saw her last, Jensen has kept busy releasing albums, starting her own record label and performing for the troops in Iraq. More recently, she has been singing as a member of the band Silver Cities, who have just released their debut album.

The 31-year-old particularly loved that, unlike Idol, The Voice is literally all about the contestant’s singing.

“The coaches don’t get to see you or make judgments on anything other than what they hear and the connection that makes with them,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s as intimidating when you’re just singing to backs of chairs.”

At Jensen’s audition, judges Kylie Minogue and will.i.am spun their chairs around, giving her the choice between the two of whom to work with.

“I ended up going with Kylie. She’s just so gorgeous and an absolute pocket rocket dynamite chick,” she said.

From here, the contestants enter the “battle round” where they sing against other members of their team.

“Kylie’s put together people from her team who sing off against each other – it’s a bit nervewracking,” Jensen said.

“It’s certainly not a natural sort of thing – it’s not a duet, it’s a battle. As a singer that’ll be an interesting thing.”

Despite being based in Sydney, Jensen still calls Canberra her home town. She would love to still be living in the capital, but work dictates she live in Sydney.

“The industry is just so much more here unfortunately. It was getting a bit expensive travelling all the time,” she said.

“I didn’t want to be another person who left Canberra but flights weren’t that cheap so travelling up every week to write and record and do gigs was becoming impossible.”

The Voice continues on WIN on Saturday May 10 at 7pm.