Craig Lucas crowned as ‘The Voice’ winner
First time finale contested by seven musicians
AS WINNER of the The Voice SA‚ Craig Lucas walks away with a recording contract from Universal Music‚ R250 000 in cash‚ a new car‚ a smartwatch and cellphone‚ a camera‚ a TV and R100 000 worth of fashion vouchers.
The two-hour finale was held in Johannesburg on Sunday night and featured performances by some of South Africa’s biggest artists.
The show’s seven finalists collaborated with stars such as Nadine‚ Nianell‚ Gavin Edwards‚ Emo Adams‚ Thembeka Mnguni‚ Jimmy Nevis and Magdalene Minnaar.
Craig follows in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Richard Stirton, and his coach, Kahn Morbee.
It was the first time in the history of the show that the finale was contested by seven musicians after dodgy voting tactics resulted in the return of two contestants who had previously been booted out.
In a statement released late last month‚ M-Net said it had been alerted to paid-for marketing efforts (boosted posts) on some of the contestant’s personal social media accounts.
The boosted posts went against the rules of the competition and led to M-Net inviting the last two eliminated contestants – Luke Lovemore and P J Pretorius – back into the show.
The broadcaster refused to reveal the names of the guilty parties and said they could not “determine with certainty whether misconduct took place and what the impact was on the voting results”.
Then earlier last week, the show was once again hit by more voting issues when M-Net revealed it had been alerted to another boosted post.
In a statement released ahead of the show’s finale, M-Net said it had been notified of a post that was visible online for about three hours and was later removed on the broadcaster’s request.
“M-Net was aware of another boosted social media post linked to The Voice SA voting this week. This paidfor marketing was visible online for approximately three hours on the morning of Tuesday July 4 and removed on M-Net’s request.”
According to an independent analysis, the “ranking of the talent and overall winner” had apparently not changed since the boosted post.
The broadcaster has also remained steadfast in its decision not to name the guilty parties‚ despite insisting that it was being “transparent”.
“M-Net does not condone rulebreaking and will disqualify talent on all our reality shows‚ if and when we feel it’s required. At the same time‚ it’s important for us that all realityshow voting competitions play out in a fair and transparent way. It would not have been fair to mention names‚” M-Net spokeswoman Lani Lombard said.
M-Net promised to disclose the voting figures from the finale later this week in the interest of transparency.