Do you have The Voice for SA’s coaches?

A SOUTH African version of the hit US talent-search series, The Voice, is to be introduced on DStv’s M-Net (channel 101) next year.

To be titled The Voice South Africa, the show will feature four South African celebrity coaches who will develop talented singers in the series, but these coaches will only be revealed later in the year.

However, contestants are being sought from next month for the local version of a show which made its debut in 2010 in the Netherlands, as The Voice of Holland. It was created by John de Mol, who also created Big Brother and Fear Factor.

The Voice has since become a hit in the US, Australia and the UK, where Adam Levine, Blake Sheldon, Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Tom Jones, Pharrell Williams, Kylie Minogue and Ricky Martin have occupied the show’s renowned red chairs.

Joining a long list of countries – from Afghanistan, to Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam – South Africa is the 60th country in the world to add a local flavour to The Voice.

“A show of this magnitude is a fantastic platform for some of our biggest local recording artists. Apart from the panel of four local coaches, several guest coaches will also make guest appearances,” M-Net’s chief executive officer, Yolisa Phahle, said.

The Voice comprises three phases. Once the best singers are identified at open auditions, they go through to the “blind audition” phase, where the coaches listen to them sing without seeing them.

If a coach is interested in a singer, he or she pushes a button that swivels their chair around to face the contestant. If more than one coach turns their chair, the contestant has the opportunity to pick which coach he or she would prefer to work with.

Next the show moves on to the “battle rounds”, where each coach pairs up two of his or her contestants to perform together, and then chooses only one to go through.

The last phase is the live show round, where the remaining contestants sing for the public’s votes, until one singer is named the winner of The Voice South Africa.

Entries will be open to all South African citizens older than 18.

While there will be open auditions in the country’s biggest cities, singers who want to be part of the show will also be able to submit a song online.

Details about these submissions, audition dates and venues, as well as the prizes, will be made available on the M-Net website from next month.

The Mercury