Richard Stirton is The Voice SA!
Richard Stirton gets congratulated by his fellow Talent and Coaches
Last night, during a live broadcast of the finale, Richard Stirton from Cape Town was announced the very first winner of M-Net’s proudly South African singing contest, The Voice SA. This also means that Kahn Morbee has come out tops as the winning coach of the season, beating fellow coaches and esteemed muso’s Karen Zoid, Lira and Bobby van Jaarsveld at the finishing line.
The live final from Sasani Studios in Johannesburg, which also included spectacular performances from Vusi Mahlasela and Riana Nel, as well as collaborations between the coaches and the talent in their teams who made it to the Top 8.
Gavin Edwards from Johannesburg, who was hot on Richard’s heels on the iTunes charts this week at no 2, came in second for #TeamBobby, and #TeamLira’s Jeremy Olivier and #TeamKaren’s Almur Marais, rounded out the Top 4.
Before he entered The Voice South Africa and embarked on his journey to becoming South Africa’s next superstar, Richard was studying towards his B.Com management degree at UCT and playing music in Barnyard shows and at Cape Town’s famous “Stardust” restaurant. All four of the coaches turned for him during the Blind Auditions and he decided to join #TeamKahn because Kahn Morbee said that he had inspired him.
Richard beat James Freedom from Ballito in the Battle Rounds singing James Bay’s “Hold Back The River” and in the first live broadcast on 17 April he performed the old Proclaimers one-hit-wonder, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, prompting proud Coach Kahn to predict that he would probably end up winning the competition. When he sang “Don’t You Worry Child” from Swedish House Mafia in the following show, he was saved by the audience’s vote, whereafter Kahn saved him on Top 12 show on Mumford & Sons’s “I Will Wait”.
It seems like fans will have to wait just a few weeks for Universal Records to release Richard’s first single. Universal explained during a press conference after the broadcast, that he full album will take a little time, as they want to spend some time on a quality album. What fans can look forward too more, is the inclusion of a well-anticipated collaboration between Stirton and his coach, Khan Morbee, and even the Parlotones.
Last week Richard closed the show with a stirring rendition of the Simon & Garfukel classic “The Sound of Silence”, which went all the way to Number 1 on South African iTunes on the very same night. See this video here:
Richard walks away with a spectacular prize package worth more than R800 000, comprising:
- A R200 000 cash prize from DialDirect;
- A brand new Fiat 500;
- A coveted Gear S2 watch from Samsung, along with a Samsung Galaxy S7 smart phone, a Gear Virtual Reality set, a JS9000 smart TV and Level On Headphones;
- R100 000 worth of cutting-edge fashion from Truworths;
- And of course that coveted recording contract with Universal Music South Africa.
Last night during the final voting stages of the show, various voting platforms crashed due to a sudden stampede of voters trying to save their favourite talent. Lani Lombard, M-Net’s head of Publicity explained that “The Voice broke the Internet”. Dissatisfied viewers across South Africa took to social media during the 30 second voting period, expressing their concerns with theses platforms not allowing them to vote. This immediately alerted the producers of the show, and action was taken immediately.
Lombard explained that due to the pressure of the live show, and the fact that the technical difficulties might have compromised the validity of the final live vote, the producers decided to turn to the terms and the conditions of the show, which was to revert back to the audited results of Thursday night. “Because M-Net is a responsible and transparent broadcaster, we want to be fair to all talent at all times.” Lombard said. All the rules are made public before the start of the season and all problems and technical glitches are revealed to the viewers as and when it happens. Lombard was confident that even though M-Net had no control over the problem last night, the credibility of the show did not suffer as a result.
“The Voice SA has been an amazing platform for the incredible talent on the show and we believe that it will launch plenty of successful music careers, “says Lombard. “Universal Music has already shown interest in signing some of the other talent as well and more announcements will be made soon. The Top 8 performances are now on Apple Music, and on iTunes.
More good news, is that a second season is in the pipeline, but more will be revealed at a later stage. But until then, it is off to Universal Studio’s for Richard Stirton to record his first album, as the first Voice of South Africa.