Top artists to judge voices
SA talent will be coached by very best
WHO would you choose as your coach if you made it on The Voice SA?
Would it be much-loved songbird Lira, The Parlotones frontman Kahn Morbee, rock star Karen Zoid or Afrikaans musician Bobby van Jaarsveld?
The four were yesterday revealed as the first batch of celebrity coaches to join the show and the announcement sent twitter into overdrive.
Although the coaches are successful and established artists in their own rights, several commentators were unhappy about the selection, with many questioning the lack of diversity on the panel.
M-Net spokesperson Ingrid Engelbrecht said the production company approached a list of high-profile possible coaches but due to their tight schedules they were unable to film during the required periods.
“Thereafter we auditioned several candidates on camera. Kahn, Lira, Bobby and Karen ticked all the boxes and we’re thrilled to have a group that covers a variety of genres,” Engelbrecht said.
Twitter user @Rtd–Colonel said: “The composition of judges on #TheVoiceSA is rudely disturbing considering the country’s demography 2 Afrikaans, 1 English & 1 Black.”
@iamforbeyonce: “#TheVoiceSA are they for real about those coaches they chose? They can’t be for real!”
@Bheelicious: “Wow!! #TheVoiceSA was that the best they could do with their 1st set of judges”.
“The chemistry between the coaches also forms an integral part of The Voice format and based on the auditions we believe that they will ensure that The Voice is a firecracker show,” said Engelbrecht.
The Voice SA airs in January 2016 and sees contestants sing in a blind audition.
Here the four coaches listen to them sing and if they like what they hear, they turn to face the singer.
If more than one coach turns, the contestant has the opportunity to pick which coach they’d prefer to work with.
The coaches then pair up their singers in a sing-off to go through to the last phase where contestants sing for public votes.
If you want to be on The Voice, you need to have an amazing voice, be older than 18, have South African citizenship and go to auditions which will commence in October.
Auditions take place in the following cities on the following dates:
Cape Town – Newlands Stadium on October 17 and 18; Durban – Kings Park Rugby Stadium on October 25 and 26; and Johannesburg – Mark’s Park on October 31 and November 1.
To skip the long audition queues, you can also submit a YouTube link of you performing a song to www.mnet.tv/ thevoice. The Voice SA’s selection team will fast-track some of the best voices on these online audition submissions to the front of the queue.