The Voice of Ireland is the Irish edition of the international TV
franchise The Voice, a reality singing competition created by media tycoon John
de Mol. The first series began airing from 8 January 2012 on RTÉ One. The
coaches originally were Bressie, Sharon Corr, Kian Egan and Brian Kennedy.
Kennedy left after the first series and was replaced by Jamelia. After the
second series, Corr quit the show owing to other commitments and was replaced by
Dolores O'Riordan. Following series 3, Dolores and Jamelia quit. The current
coaches are Bressie, Una Foden, Kian Egan and Rachel Stevens. The show is
hosted by Kathryn Thomas and co-hosted by Eoghan McDermott, who also presented
backstage show The Voice After Party in Series 3.
The series is part of the The Voice franchise and is based on a similar
competition format in the Netherlands entitled The Voice of Holland. The show
replaced The All Ireland Talent Show. One of the important premises of the
show is the quality of the singing talent. Four coaches, themselves popular
performing artists, train the talents in their group and occasionally perform
with them. Talents are selected in blind auditions, where the coaches cannot see,
but only hear the auditioner. The TV show "blind" auditions are held
at the The Helix, and are broadcast for the first five weeks of the series. The
Battle Phase is broadcast over three weeks from the second week of February
to the last week of February each year. The winner of the show is offered a
recording contract with Universal Music Ireland worth €100,000.
The current holder of the crown The Voice of Ireland is the series 4
champion, Patrick Donoghue. It was confirmed on 12 June 2015 that the show
would return for a fifth series in 2016. Production
The show replaced The All Ireland Talent Show. The Voice of Ireland aired on RTE
One. The show is produced by Screentime Shinawil Productions.
= Auditions = Auditions took place at the end of 2011.
The closing date for applications was Monday, 19 September 2011.
The Blind Auditions for Series 1 took place at The Helix, Dublin, between 26
and 31 October 2011 in front of a live audience. The first series began on 8
January 2012 and finished on 29 April 2012. The Blind auditions for Series 2
took place at The Helix, Dublin, place on 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 October 2012 at
The Helix. = Scheduling and filming =
The show takes place in The Helix, Dublin. The Live Shows began on 4 March.
The main show airs for 90 minutes. The results show airs for 30 minutes. The
show airs on Sunday nights. The second series began filming the Blind Auditions
in Dublin's Helix theatre on 21 October 2012.
Series overview To date, two series has been broadcast
and the third series is underway, as summarised below.
Format The series consists of three phases:
Blind audition Battle phase
Live performance shows = Blind audition =
Four coaches, all famous musicians, choose teams of artists through a blind
audition process. Each coach has the length of the artists performance to
decide if he or she wants that artist on his or her team; if two or more coaches
want the same artist then the singer gets to choose which coach they want to
work with. An addition to the third season is that RTÉ 2fm have selected 5
wildcards to audition. = Battle phase =
Each team of singers will be mentored and developed by their coach. In the
second stage, coaches will have two of their team members battle against each
other by singing the same song, with the coach choosing which team member will
advance to the next stage. For the third series a new feature was added whereby
if an act lost their battle, they are not immediately out of the competition.
Each coach has one 'Steal' where they get the opportunity to take one losing
act and have them join their team for the live shows. They do this by pressing
their 'I Want You' button. = Live performance shows =
In the final phase, the remaining contestants will compete against each
other in live broadcasts. The television audience will help to decide who moves
on. When one team member remains for each coach, the contestants will compete
against each other in the finale. = Post-The Voice of Ireland =
The winner of the show will be offered a recording contract with Universal Music
Ireland worth €100,000. Coaches and hosts
Coaches' teams and their artists Color key
Winners are in bold, Finalists are italicized in bold font, and eliminated
artists are in small font. Reception
= Series averages = = Ratings =
RTÉ described the first ever episode as "a great ratings success" as it pulled
in an average of 708,000 viewers and peaked at 1.2 million. It was later
reported that the first 5 episodes pulled in an average of 701,000 viewers
a week. Audience ratings for the first series,
initially promising, had plunged by 50% by the time the live shows were
broadcast and were reported to be unfavourable when compared to ratings
held by its predecessor The All Ireland Talent Show.
Music releases by The Voice of Ireland contestants
As of July 2015, the Voice of Ireland has had thirteen singles and four albums
chart on the top 100 on the Irish Singles and Albums Charts.
= Singles = = Albums =
References