18-YEAR-OLD Anja Nissen has been crowned the winner of 2014′s The Voice Australia over runner-up Jackson Thomas and third placed Johnny Rollins.
But did she really win by way of receiving the most votes — or was she simply the most viable ‘artist’ of the bunch in the eyes of Channel 9 producers and Universal music executives?
More: What The Voice coaches won’t tell the winner
More: What The Voice coaches won’t tell the winner
The Voice is promoted as a popularity contest for singers. The superstar judges pick a squad of singers they want in their team based purely on the quality of their voice during blind auditions. Following that they trim their numbers down to smaller squads before viewers take control during the live rounds by voting for their favourite singer by calling, texting and purchasing their single on iTunes — the latter of which counts as two votes.
While statistics for calls and texts are impossible for the public to track, it is usually possible to gauge who is likely to stay and who will go based on weekly iTunes performance and ARIA chart rankings. But not this week.
Third-placed Johnny Rollins took a clear ascendancy on the Australian iTunes charts this week, selling more copies of his When A Man Loves A Woman single than Anja Nissen sold of I Have Nothing.
That translated to the Official ARIA Singles chart, where Rollins’ single ranked at #38 on the Top 50. First-placed Nissen’s single did not perform well enough to chart at all, and neither did runner-up Jackson Thomas’ single.
This begs questions regarding the authenticity of votes. Do they count for anything?
Nissen only reached the finale thanks to being ‘saved’ via Vodafone’s Home Coach app. She was saved ahead of Holly Tapp, Kat Jade, and early favourite to win the entire competition Sabrina Batshon.
Batshon had repeatedly outranked Nissen on the iTunes charts. Additionally, when looking at another available popularity-measuring statistic, YouTube views, it becomes harder to believe that Nissen had a bigger army of fans voting on their Home Coach app than Batshon.
According to raw data, Batshon had twice as many YouTube views as Nissen over the course of the season. In fact, Batshon had more views than any other The Voice contestant this year and had the highest-viewed solo performance each week from Top 20 Week until her ultimate elimination.
Below are the 2014 The Voice Australia Top 16 cumulative YouTube performance video statistics from The Voice Australia’s official YouTube channel:
1. Sabrina Batshon — 2,037,041 views
2. Elly Oh — 1,916,175
3. C Major — 1,374,838
4. Robbie Balmer — 1,203,192
5. Kat Jade — 1,153,034
6. Anja Nissen — 1,051,354
7. Holly Tapp — 985,188
8. ZK — 970,333
9. Johnny Rollins — 964,493
10. Mat Verevis — 949,419
11. Jackson Thomas — 760,391
12. Isaac McGovern — 742,063
13. Frank Lakoudis — 726,675
14. Gabriel & Cecilia — 634,820
15. John Lingard — 544,096
16. Talia Gouge — 386,588
To do away with all speculation regarding the mysterious call and text votes perhaps The Voice should take votes ONLY in the form of iTunes single purchases. That way the charts dictate who stays and who goes — no ifs, buts or maybes.
And let’s not forget one important thing: The Voice is a music show based on singing performances. What a concept; letting the music consumers and music consumers alone decide who wins the singing contest.
