The Voice South Africa kicks off its 3rd season on M-Net (DStv 101) this evening at 17:30 with a rebroadcast on Mondays on VUZU (DStv 116) at 20:00 starting with the usual blind auditions - but a big format change is happening, with the coaches who will no longer all swivel around in their red chairs to see and talk with whom they missed out on, if none of them turned.
Instead, all their backs will remain turned to the contestant who will simply have to exit stage left.
Asked about not turning, the sole returning coach from the previous seasons, Lira, says "It's horrible because everyone on The Voice SA can actually sing. So emotionally it really is difficult."
"But sometimes you end up with a lot of similar voices and you do need diversity. So sometimes you really do get a great person, but you're thinking" 'I've got two or three voices already that sound like this'. So it's all of those kinds of dynamics that come into play."
Lira, the other coaches and show executives spoke at a M-Net press screening and Q&A session of this evening's episode that took place at the Gold Reef City cinema a week ago where The Voice SA formed part of M-Net's 3-day programming upfront.
About being the veteran coach with three new ones added - Riky Rick, Francois van Coke and Riana Nel, Lira says "initially I had feelings of – probably because I've done it longer – that I have to help everyone along".
"No. I didn't have to do a thing. Everyone was strong, they were present, I was having a great time, I didn't have to worry about any of that, I could just focus on what I needed to do. It was great competition with confidence and great content."
"When you're sitting there, all kinds of people are coming through. What you do is irrelevant – you're there to serve the talent," she says.
"If you find a voice that just wows you, you go 'I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I want you on my team'. Sometimes if you connect with somebody, and say nobody else connects, I was going for just whatever resonates, irrespective of music genre."
Non-turning chairs
"We have 100 people auditioning for the coaches and they can only choose 48 of them, so literally 50% of everyone who's brilliant enough to have got there is no longer on the show," says Darren Hayward, The Voice SA producer.
"It's a tragic thing. And the coaches have to strategically build where they want to go with their teams of 12. So sometimes you look and think: 'They made such a mistake', but actually they were making a decision based upon their strategy."
"We do have a couple of people who are no-turns. This is a global decision – the non-turning chairs at the end of nobody turned."
"A lot of research was done with the talent who didn't get a turn, and the coaches would have to turn around and in the nicest possible way tell them why they didn't turn and what goes into that. And in actual effect what was happening was that the talent didn’t hear a thing."
"It was just so much easier, after no-turns, to just walk away. So it feels very tragic and it feels like we're not finishing the story necessarily from the coaches' point of view, but in actual fact, the talent just feels better. They don't have to face them, they don't have to go through all that kind of stuff."
"We run a very positive show, we do encourage them to come back, we do encourage them to keep on trying, and a show like this doesn't define you as a musician – it literally just enhances opportunities," says Darren Hayward.
"Besides the non-turning chairs at the end of nobody turned – a new change to the format, in the last season we had battles first, and then we had knock-outs. And for this new season, we've actually swopped those around. We've created a really nice dramatic build-up to our live shows."
"Those are the major ones, there are a couple more which I’m not going to talk about. Another format change was putting the family room in the studio itself."
The Voice SA coach Francois says "there's so much emotion when you don't turn. And the reason for not turning is a thousand things – not just one thing. It's a crazy experience".
New presenter Anele: Trying to find all the Dr. Phil-isms'
Another new addition to The Voice SA is Anele Mdoda as the new presenter replacing the previous ones and hanging out backstage with the friends and family members of contestants.
"My feet are not great, because I was standing the entire time. The families are holding me, they're squeezing me; every breath they take I'm taking it with them."
"It's so much fun when a coach turns. I won't lie – it's not great when nobody turns. And I'm out there trying to find all the Dr. Phil-isms in my head like 'This doesn't mean the end' and 'It's okay'. But I mean, because the families are there, and the support is there, they knew they were talented before the coaches' chairs turn or not."
"And that's what I try to remind them of – the fact that you had the support means that you can sing and there are no limits to The Voice SA – there's no age, there's no cut-off, it's not like 'this has to happen before I turn 35'. You can come at 65 and if you can sing, you can sing," says Anele Mdoda.
Live shows of the third season of The Voice SA will take place at The Mosaïek Teatro in Johannesburg where the previous seasons took place, with tickets that will go on sale at Computicket.
ALSO READ: REVIEW. Third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net less jack-in-the-box, more tempered; just as much fun as before.
