The last time Jesse Teinaki was on The Voice stage, it was a bittersweet moment.
WATCH: The Voice’s Delta Goodrem breaks down over Natasha Stuart’s death
In spine-tingling scenes in the Battle round, the 28-year-old belted out a version of Calvin Harris’ hit Giants alongside the formidable Natasha Stuart.
It marked the end of The Voice journey for Jesse when he was eliminated as team coach Delta Goodrem made the tough decision to take Natasha through to the next round instead of him.

Before departing the competition, a humble-in-defeat Jesse heaped praise on Natasha, who was in the midst of an aggressive cancer battle.
Sadly, just months later, Natasha tragically succumbed to her fight against the disease, leaving her family, friends and The Voice co-stars devastated.
As Jesse returns for a second shot at The Voice glory, he speaks to New Idea about his emotional return to the show’s stage for the first time after the loss of Natasha.

“My first thought was the weight [of it all].” Jesse says.
“Obviously it was hard thing to do when you want to do that first thing again after such a tragic loss. There’s always that hardship.
“But for anyone who knows Tash – and if you don’t – she’s the most supportive loving soul, one of the greatest I’ve met in my career in the music industry and I knew that she was just there to support me and she was above me giving me guidance. So she actually gave me the strength more so than anything.”

Jesse adds that he initially had second thoughts about returning to The Voice and realised it was because of Natasha.
“There was something kind of holding me back which I couldn’t really figure out,” Jesse explains.
“Like I’m a universe person, I’m a spiritual person. I really didn’t figure it out until I stepped out on stage for the first time since being there with Tash, everything just made sense, that she had my back with this.
“As soon as I was eliminated last year she told me keep going back and the world hasn’t finished with me yet and there’s still so much to go. So being the first time since having been on there with Tash, it was pretty emotional.”

Jesse wasn’t the only one feeling emotional due to his return to The Voice stage. On Tuesday night’s episode, Delta struggled to keep her composure while speaking to Jesse after his performance.
“I believed in you in every step of the journey. And in the moment when you battled against the beautiful Natasha…” a visibly emotional Delta said before trailing off as fellow coach Kelly Rowland comforted her.
Delta continued: “Life is really funny and that moment we were obviously meant to share with Natasha and she lit up the stage and in this moment it is wonderful to see you come back and do that performance you will remember forever.”