Face of Nation : Imagine you were watching the State of Origin last night, and the commentators kept ranting about how great the referee’s performance was. Worse still, the camera focused mainly on the coaches as they sat in the box. Then, the post-game coverage also concentrated on the coaches and the referees, and did so for weeks on end, until, within a few months, nobody quite remembered who played in the actual game.
That’s The Voice. Like Australian Idol, it is a star-making machine. Unlike Idol, the only careers The Voice aims to boost is those of their judges. It is set up to deliver success — just not to the musicians who carry the entire show week to week, courting viewers and voters. The singers put their entire lives on pause for months on end as they rack up debts, halt careers and sign contracts that tie them to a specific record label, despite seemingly having the most career leverage they will ever achieve.
Then, if they are lucky enough to actually win, as Diana Rouvas did on Sunday night, they release a single and an album without any further support from the show that gave them their big boost.
So, considering the poor track record, the draconian contractual obligations, and the quick career drop off if you manage to win, why would you go on The Voice?
Put bluntly, it’s a great showcase — as long as you treat the show as the pinnacle, and not as a means to an end. Singing your heart out on national TV in front of millions is certainly nothing to be sneezed at. But The Voice won’t give you a music career, no matter how much you nail the big notes.
Judging by midweek sales projections, Diana Rouvas, who won The Voice in front of more than a million Australian viewers on Sunday night, won’t even debut in the ARIA Top 50, and may not even made the top 100.
The Voice will, however, provide a nice sales bump for one lucky artist — Guy Sebastian. His latest single Choir will certainly climb a few places off the back of Sunday night’s rating bonanza, possibly even sliding into the top 5.
And so, after winning Australian Idol in 2003, it would appear that Guy Sebastian is the real winner of The Voice in 2019. Go the fro!
