The Voice SA

We’ve been on the set and uncovered some hidden tracks when we spoke to The Voice South Africa (2016-current) director Darren Hayward and musical director James Bassingthwaighte…

The coaches (Bobby van Jaarsveld, Karen Zoid, Lira and Kahn Morbee) wore the same outfits throughout the recording of the Blind Auditions because auditions from different sessions may be edited into the same episode. The set designers and producers worked from a strict 500-page guide when setting up the stage and the gameplay for The Voice SA. That black, shiny stage was dusty and scuffed when we saw it – and that happens really fast. So it’s specially polished just before each and every performer steps out on stage. The coaches’ chairs turn if you hit the button, but hit it twice and they abruptly stop mid-turn. Coaches have had to learn to rein in their excitement so that they don’t do this on TV. The Voice doesn’t pay per song – M-Net pays music rights organisation CAPASSO (Composers, Authors And Publishers Association) a blanket fee but productions are only allowed to use songs from the CAPASSO library. Meghan Trainor’s 2015 hit song All About That Bass wasn’t on CAPASSO, so James had to contact her publisher directly to negotiate them into registering it. And they had to do the same for many local artists because the show includes 10% Afrikaans songs and 10% other South African language songs. But it’s all worth it to see the talent find their unique voices!