It feels like a tornado hit me, says The Voice’s Craig Lucas
CRAIG LUCAS plans to have a special thank you for his hometown of Elsies River for voting for him.
He was announced the winner of the second season of The Voice South Africa, broadcast live on M-Net and M-Net City from Joburg. Lucas received more than 1.6 million votes, an all-time record for the show. The ecstatic 24-yearold could not control the tears when he was crowned the winner.
During each round of the competition, Lucas blew the audience away with his unique style of singing popular songs.
“It honestly feels like a tornado hit me,” Lucas said in a phone interview from Joburg yesterday.
Lucas, a graduate in economics and politics at UCT, was born in Elsies River, and became involved with The Voice after his friends persuaded him to audition for the second season of the show.
“I’ve always been a really big fan of the competition. I believe it’s much more than an empowerment show. It doesn’t break down your talent.”
Lucas said that without the community of Elsies River, he wouldn’t have come this far.
“Doing something special for all of them is my way to say thank you,” he said.
His family, including his mother Jenny, were present at the live show.
“I am so proud of him, I still haven’t digested the news,” she said, adding that at first she hadn’t been aware that he had entered the competition.
“I didn’t even know he’d entered. Only after the blind auditions occurred did he tell me, ‘Mommy, I made it through’,” she said.
The show’s seven finalists had the opportunity to collaborate with local stars such as Heartboxing hitmaker Jimmy Nevis, Nianell and Nadine.
Lucas follows in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Richard Stirton.
For the first time in the show’s history, the finale was contested by seven performers. This comes after deplorable voting tactics that resulted in the return of two contestants.
Earlier in the competition, M-Net had been alerted to alleged paid-for marketing efforts on some performers’ personal social media accounts. Paid-for marketing is against the rules of the competition.
M-Net said that in the interest of transparency, it would disclose the voting figures from the grand finale this week.
I’ve always been a big fan of the competition