A crowd of new voices belted out their pipes in the second round of Blind auditions on The Voice SA this week.
Here's a recap of how events unfolded by the show:
For the first time in the history of The Voice South Africa
, a talented singer picked coach Bobby van Jaarsveld after a four-chair turn.
Throughout the first season’s Blind Auditions, and up until now, auditionees always preferred joining the teams of co-coaches Lira, Kahn Morbee or Karen Zoid, but this week chemical engineer Marco Basson (23) made Bobby reign supreme.
Marco wowed the coaches with his rendition of Nick Jonas’ “Jealous”, and when they turned around they were stunned to see that the powerful voice belonged to such a nerdy-looking guy. They all thought he could win the competition and were visibly disappointed to lose such a gem to Bobby.
Bobby was clearly on a roll during this round of Blind Auditions. Along with Marco, Bobby also snatched up two of the youngest singers this season: 19-year-old pastor’s kid Anchen Groenewald from Rustenburg and 18-year-old Chad Jubber, who completed matric last year near Pietermaritzburg.
Anchen made an impression with Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” while Chad’s version of local singer Matthew Mole’s “Autumn” truly resonated with Bobby.
Marco wasn’t the only singer for whom all four coaches turned their red chairs. 31-year-old Jacqueline Tolken, a beautician by trade who grew up in Phalaborwa and now lives in Kempton Park, sang the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams”, which earned her high praise from all four coaches.
Both Lira and Karen agreed that she has a talent that can go global, and both begged her to consider them as coaches. But Jacqueline said from the start that she’d choose the coach who turned for her first, and even though both Lira and Karen pressed their buzzers almost simultaneously, it was Lira who pipped Karen to the post.
Joining the bohemian Jacqueline in #TeamLira this week was another impressive female powerhouse performer, Tender Mavundla (35). Tender, who hails from Port Shepstone, used to have a career in music before retiring it all in favour of returning back to her home town and raising her daughter.
After a number of years out of the limelight after winning SABC1's Jam Alley, Tender decided that it was time again to reclaim her place behind the microphone. Garnering three out of four coach turns on The Voice SA stage, with her blistering rendition of the Brenda Fassie classic “Vulindlela”, Tender chose to join #TeamLira.
Another singer who entered the show to prove that it really is all about the Voice was the animated and hilarious 40-year-old music teacher Fatman from Bela-Bela. His audition performance of Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis” was enough to get both Kahn and Bobby to turn for him, but it was his larger-than-life stage presence and personality that really got the coaches belly laughing.
Having been a full-time music teacher until now, Fatman’s career trajectory might just change now that he has earned himself a place on #TeamKahn.
Karen Zoid also expanded her team with young Lindokuhle “Lindo” Sithole (21) from Pietermaritzburg. Lindo has been performing music professionally for 3 years now and entered The Voice SA
in order to progress to another level.
Lindo started singing for appreciative audiences back in high school, and after school he studied for a Bachelor of Social Science in Business at UKZN Pietermaritzburg, before venturing into music full-time. The song that won the uniquely stylish Lindo a spot on #TeamKaren was a South African classic: “Burn Out”, from Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse.
After tonight’s episode, Lira now has five talent in her team, Bobby is right behind her with four, and Karen and Kahn each have two in their teams so far.