Wildcard entry Anja Nissen wins The Voice for 2014, thanks to coach will.I.am
EIGHTEEN-year-old ‘wildcard’ Anja Nissen has won The Voice for 2014 — and looks set to find fame internationally thanks to coach will.i.am.
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FROM wildcard to winner — Blue Mountains beauty Anja Nissen has scaled the TV talent show heights to be voted Australia’s favourite singer on The Voice.
The 18-year-old singer beat out Team Ricky’s Jackson Thomas and Team Kylie’s favourite Johnny Rollins to take the title.
The ratings for The Voice Grand Final were well down on last year with just 1.57m viewers tuning in to the winner announcement across the five major cities, down 31 per cent on last year.
Nine is likely to be underwhelmed by the figures, given the Grand Final pulled in 2.0m in 2013 and 2.6m in 2012.
As is the norm with reality show grand finals, the episode is split into two segments, the grand final and winner announcement, for ratings purposes.
The remainder of the show pulled in 1.66m, also significantly down.
On top of the show’s usual prize package of a car and cash, Nissen’s coach will.i.am rewarded his newly crowned pop princess by claiming her as a new signing to his record label.
A jubilant Nissen said: “I cannot believe that I am the winner of The Voice 2014. It feels like I have been preparing for this for a long time.
“I started singing when I was six and always dreamt about my career kicking off, but I never thought it would happen early, and The Voice has given me an outlet to do that.”
She described her TV journey as “the most amazing experience of my life. And getting to work with will.i.am — he has taught me so much and pushed me beyond my boundaries, which I really needed.”
Thanking her family and those who voted for her, she added: “this is what I was born to do.”
The “ready-to-pop” singer has enjoyed a meteoric ride on the Channel 9 series — plucked from last year’s NSW Schools Spectacular by network scouts, who urged the teenager to test her talents on The Voice — wowing them with Mariah Carey’s Vanishing.
During the finale she soared as a sexy replacement for will.i.am’s Black Eyed Peas cohort Fergie, as Team Will — including ZK singers Zaachariaha Fielding and Kristal West — joined forces to sing the US band’s anthem, Where Is The Love.
But in her own spotlight, the bush babe showcased her athletic vocals when she repeated her most requested performance of the disco track, When Love Takes Over.
Coach Will forecast an international future for the glamorous blonde, casting her in the same company as some of music’s biggest names including Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga.
The Black Eyed Peas frontman’s offer to steal Nissen for his own label will no doubt have to be negotiated with Universal Music Australia, which wins the rights to the winning single.
Her first single, My Girls, is expected on sale on Friday, July 25.
She will also release a follow-up single produced by her coach; while her album is due for release on Friday, August 1.
Nissen’s win was also an endorsement of sorts of Nine’s digital Home Coach app, which saved her from elimination and gave her one last lifeline to win the title.
Despite leading the iTunes chart race all week, “My rock ‘n Rollins” as coach Kylie Minogue dubbed him, placed third.
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Their odd couple pairing was no more apparent than when they performed a duet of her pop hit, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head — the diminutive diva dwarfed by her towering charge.
But his charisma was front and centre in his final studio performance of his blind audition track, Beneath Your Beautiful, accompanied by strings and leaving women in the audience swooning.
The quiet achiever of this year’s finale, Geelong electrician Jackson continued to be the finals surprise packet — finishing runner-up.
First chosen on Team Kylie, he was saved by Ricky Martin during the battle rounds, making full use of coach Martin’s vast fan connections to rally behind the indie singer.
Martin was relentless in corralling support from his 10 million plus Twitter followers and extensive social media fan clubs — even making a final appeal on air before voting closed, urging the audience to “text Jackson, text Jackson.”
Regardless of the result, Martin again showed his faith in his singers, inviting Jackson to sing support on his Australian tour next year.
Alfords Point rocker Frank Lakoudis smiled his way through the series — and out of it as he and Adelaide duo ZK were the first acts to be eliminated.
As the show opened, coach Joel Madden felt his good guy rocker “could be the one” to win the first title for Team Joel in three attempts but it was not to be.
The 23-year-old earned himself an unmatched reputation for being polite, engaged and, perhaps the greatest compliment, the kind of hardworking Australian he will no doubt draw to his local gigs in droves.
Similarly, the haunting sound of ZK, an indigenous pairing who only began singing together six months ago, showed their grace — thanking their coach will.i.am and families, including West’s grandmother Bonita Mabo (the widow of land rights icon, Eddie Mabo) who sat front row clapping and weeping.
Coach Will was left reeling by their elimination, telling host Darren McMullen he was “struggling to put my heart back together.”
Earlier, in the two-hour-plus finale to Nine’s top-rating talent series, the top 16 returned to kick off a show with an all-in performance of The Real Thing, teaming with the show’s superstar coaches.
While there were the usual fireworks, glitter guns and smoke machines — even a hallucinogenic performance by multiple will.i.ams’ — there was a distinct lack of heart in this season ender, with social media feedback dulled in contrast to the emotional connection made with the audience in previous seasons.
The winner will now be rushed into the studio to record their first single, expected to be released for public sale on Friday.
Originally published as Wildcard entry Anja Nissen wins The Voice for 2014, thanks to coach will.I.am
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