The Voice Australia crowns new $100k winner

The Voice crowned a new winner on Sunday night, with one contestant taking home the $100,000 after an “insane” final performance.

The Voice Australia crowned a new winner on Sunday night, with FIFO worker and father-of-three Reuben De Melo taking out the title for 2024.

Host Sonia Kruger announced Perth-based De Melo, 32, as the winner of the show’s 13th season after a nailbiting finale that saw him join his coach LeAnn Rimes for a stirring rendition of the Coldplay ballad Fix You.

“I never thought I’d get this far … this is crazy,” De Melo said of his win, which comes with $100,000 prize money plus a “music masterclass and industry recording development package.”

Sonia Kruger announces the winner is …

Reuben De Melo! He celebrates with coach LeAnn Rimes.

“I’m so proud. You deserve every bit of this moment and I’m so honoured that I could be on this journey with you. You are incredible,” Rimes told the winner she’d worked with throughout the season.

The Voice winner Reuben De Melo: “You deserve every bit of this moment.”

Rimes also explained why she’d taken to De Melo since his first blind audition, using her “Ultimate Block” tool to stop fellow coaches Adam Lambert, Guy Sebastian and Kate Miller-Heidke from snagging him for their teams.

“I knew as soon as he opened his mouth, and I heard him sing. There was just so much feeling there. There was no way I was letting any of the other coaches get to him before I did,” she said.

For his final solo performance, De Melo sang the Animals’ classic House of the Rising Sun – a rendition Rimes described as “insane.”

“I can’t stop smiling. You just gave it your all,” she told him.

Originally published as The Voice Australia crowns new $100k winner