Karise Eden, 19, who was living in a women’s refuge on the New South Wales Central Coast when she got her break and was chosen in the British singer Seal’s team on The Voice, took the prize of $100,000, a recording contract and a car from Sarah De Bono (Team Joel), Darren Percival (Team Keith) and Rachael Leahcar (Team Delta).
The 19-year-old won $100,000, a recording contract with Universal and a car for winning the first season of the hit television show.
The win will have a huge effect on the young performer who a year ago was living in a women’s refuge. She is now on her way to being Australia’s latest singing sensation.
Her debut single was released after the show and her debut album is due next week.
Eden won the viewer voted competition ahead of 40-year-old Queensland crooner Darren Percival – they were the last two standing.
The songstress with the candy-coloured hair, Sarah De Bono, was backed into second favourite during the week but was the first eliminated with a shock fourth placing. Adelaide poppet Rachael Leahcar was third.
Percival collected $30,000 Leahcar won $20,000 and De Bono took home $10,000.
Eden, who has lived in more women’s refuges than she’s had birthdays, thanked her coach Seal who guided her all the way to victory and gave her confidence to believe in her own talents.
Before the show started, Eden had never had a singing lesson.
“Seal you have just shown me a new way, a new life, a new everything,” Eden told the British star during the show.
Viewers could vote for the artists via Facebook, SMS or phone while downloads of their songs in iTunes counted for two votes.
Voting for the final finished at midday on Monday and yet Eden still had the top three most downloaded songs on iTunes Australian chart when the show went to air.
She has regularly featured in the ARIA Top 50 singles chart and this week her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, which she belted out last week, is second to Flo Rida’s Whistle.
De Bono was the outside chance to win when final four were announced but her odds shortened dramatically after Madden said he called on his army of Twitter followers to vote for her on Facebook.
Madden’s wife Nicole Richie then started putting out the call to arms, giving De Bono access their legion of more than four million fans.
But the voting tidal wave never eventuated.
De Bono was the only one of the final four artists who did not get all four judges to turn around during the blind auditions.
In fact, the only judge who never swung around for De Bono was Seal and he ended up coaching the winner.
Tags: Australia, Eden, Karise, of, Voice
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.