Your update on a swag of former contestants from The Voice
THE Voice on Channel 9 is yet to launch an international star. We take a look back at what happened to the show’s biggest names.
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EVEN comeback judge Seal recognises The Voice has yet to launch an international star. However it has given a swag of Australian contestants a good shot at sustaining a career, although not all of them are aiming for the pop charts and spotlights.
Here’s an update on some of the biggest names from the Channel 9 TV hit show, which began in 2012 when Karise Eden won.
LATEST: Boy George’s amazing gesture to singer
MS MURPHY
Season 2: finalist
Mentor: Ricky Martin
NAME change time — you may remember her as Ms Murphy from The Voice in 2013, which was won by Harrison Craig. Ms Murphy released an EP including a killer cover of Little Dragon’s Ritual Union. However, she’s now reverted back to Karen Lee Andrews.
“I’ll always be Ms Murphy, the name and history of the name gave me a lot of confidence from a very broken place,” Andrews says today.
“I’m not in that same place anymore and I’ve embraced knowing it’s the person who makes the name. Karen Lee Andrews is my name and when people hear my music it will sound new, but familiar at the same time.”
She’s releasing an EP of originals this year, described as ‘oceanic blues’ and is focusing on establishing her own sound before returning to the live circuit.
“The time I spent on The Voice was amazing,” she says. “I was welcomed and encouraged by all the crew. They gave me an opportunity that not many people get.”
MICHAEL PAYNTER
Season 2: top 16
Mentor: Joel Madden
PAYNTER had a classic Voice backstory. He’d signed a major record deal with Sony who couldn’t quite get him to connect with the masses, beyond the 2010 hit Love the Fall, with The Veronicas. After joining The Voice in 2013 he reactivated interest in his own voice, with covers of The Horses and Locked Out of Heaven. Paynter used the exposure to release an independent album, Weary Stars, in 2014. Since then he’s gone behind the scenes. He’s been a member of Icehouse’s touring band for five years (often getting to sing Man of Colours with Iva Davies) and plays regularly with The Veronicas, Delta Goodrem and Reece Mastin. His day job is as a songwriter and producer for others — ironically his MSquared Productions team produced the song The Voice 2014 winner Anja Nissen will sing when she represents Denmark at Eurovision this year.
“The Voice was a nice platform and opened up my name to a lot of people that previously wouldn’t have known it,” Paynter says.
ANJA NISSEN
Season 3: winner
Mentor: Will I Am
NISSEN’S career post-Voice got off to a clunky start when her mentor Will I Am pulled her winner’s single at the last minute, then gave her a turkey he wrote that flopped. Her music with Mr I Am remains unreleased, but she scored a hit cover of Anyone Who Had a Heart for Love Child.
Nissen (still only 21) has now taken her career in a more global direction. Born in Australia to Danish parents, she’s embraced her heritage and will represent Denmark in Eurovision this month. Nissen co-wrote the song she’s singing Where I Am with Angel Tupai, a former X Factor contestant.
SARAH DE BONO
Season 1: fourth place
Mentor: Joel Madden
MELBOURNE singer Sarah De Bono was arguably unlucky to go up against Karise Eden in the first The Voice. She released an album called No Shame in 2012 but hasn’t been seen in the charts since 2013’s single Oasis. That hasn’t stopped De Bono playing gigs and using social media to regularly share new songs with fans.
She recently shared she’s become a mother, posting photos of daughter Serenity, and after red and purple hair, is now back to her natural colour.
NAOMI PRICE
Season 4: 6th
Mentor: Ricky Martin
YOU may remember she came on the show two years after special friend Luke Kennedy was runner up to Harrison Craig. Price, who has a background in theatre, created her own company and has toured nationally playing Adele in Rumour Has It. Price has also toured a Miley Cyrus themed “parody cabaret” Wrecking Ball.
ELLIE DRENNAN
Season 4: winner
Mentor: Jessie J
DRENNAN was just 15 when she won The Voice and her winner’s single Ghost peaked at No. 25. A follow-up, Hard Love, made No. 41 last year but she hasn’t released anything officially since.
Drennan has posted a string of covers on her social media platforms. Last year she told fans she “wanted to take some time off to focus on myself and figure out what I want to do with my music. I was 16 when I was thrown into the music industry and I have learnt so much from what I have gone through.”
Drennan said she planned to head to the US to write songs and continues to play the odd live show.
CELIA PAVEY
Season 2: third
Mentor: Delta Goodrem
SHE’S The Voice contestant who cracked Triple J, much like Matt Corby and Lisa Mitchell did post Australian Idol. After The Voice, Pavey rebranded herself as Vera Blue and this year featured in the Triple J Hottest 100 as part of Illy’s Papercuts — the first contestant from The Voice to do so. After a folk debut album, her latest single Private added an electronic influence to the mix. A new album is due this year and the singer has the support of Triple J, a rarity in reality TV world.
ALSO OUT THERE
HARRISON CRAIG
Season 2: winner
Still no sign of his original album, which he’s apparently written with heavy-hitters lined up by mentor and email buddy Seal. He’s currently touring his third covers album, Kings of Vegas.
PRINNIE STEVENS
Season 1: quarterfinals
AFTER TV and music and marrying pro basketballer Patrick Sanders, Stevens is now starring in the musical The Bodyguard.
BEN HAZLEWOOD
Season 1: semi-finalist
Making waves in the US, currently playing music showcases in LA, and had a song produced by Molly Meldrum.
JOE MOORE
Season 2: runner-up
Managed by Glenn Wheatley, he scored a Top 5 album (of original songs) and still plays live and posts covers on You Tube and social media. A second album is released this year.
RACHAEL LEAHCAR
Season 1: third
Just released her fourth album, Shadows, which reached No. 25 and contains the single What They Don’t Tell You, which she co-wrote with indie hero Josh Pyke.
RIK-E-RAGGA
Season 4: final 12
The reggae artist who didn’t quite fit The Voice’s format, he released his first EP Searching for Paradise in December, working with Marvin (son of Maxi) Priest.
Originally published as Your update on a swag of former contestants from The Voice
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