The Voice has been praised for representing Australia’s diversity in this year’s competitor line-up, however, that quickly came to an end when the only cisgender white male remaining in the competition, Lachie Gill, took out the win on Sunday, May 29.
The 24-year-old physical education teacher from Melbourne said he “never, ever expected to win”, and clearly neither did The Voice’s Twitter fans (despite the final results coming from an audience vote).
However, it’s since been revealed that thousands of votes — yes, thousands — weren’t included in the final tally due to a f*ck up with the voting numbers.
According to News.com.au, countless fans punched in the wrong phone number when voting for their fave singer via text.
A Brisbane man named Antoni told the publication that he mistakingly received messages en masse from fans trying to vote for The Voice winner, due to his own mobile number being one digit off the provided vote line.
“I deleted the first few hundred [messages] because I thought I was being spammed, not realising people were voting. I have not watched the show and had no idea why people were texting me the contestant names,” he said.
He added that it wasn’t until he saw an ad for voting that “the penny dropped”.
“I have probably a couple of thousand texts that could be added up, and a few hundred voice messages where people verbally voted.”
News.com.au also noted that “at no point did Channel 7 post the wrong number on its social media, website or on air throughout the voting period”.
What Happened When Lachie Gill Won The Voice?
Representing Team Rita [Ora] in the finale, Lachie dazzled the judges with his orchestral-rock take on Cyndi Lauper’s iconic ballad, Time After Time.
Rita told her team’s representative that his rendition was a “modern and cool” take on the hit single, while fellow-judge Jessica Mauboy explained he did her “favourite song in the world” justice.
“My whole body was floating I can’t believe how amazing you are. This is everything The Voice is about; you are the modern star that we need today,” Rita said.
After his win, Lachie nabbed a recording contract with Universal Music Australia and a whopping $100,000 in prize money.
Lachie Was Up Against Some HOT Competition During The Voice Finale
Lachie was up against some fierce competition, with Thando Sikwila (Team Keith Urban), Jordan Tavita (Team Guy Sebastian) and Faith Sosene (Team Jess), all showing off their vocal chops in the grand finale.
Performing Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful, Faith was praised for showing some of the “best singing” Guy had seen in the “entire competition”.
Jordan’s performance brought Rita to tears, singing Ghost Town by Benson Boone.
Thando nailed her rendition of the Andra Day song, Rise Up, which was hailed by her coach Keith as a “perfect full-circle moment”.
Rita added: “What you represent is so important for me as a woman.”
Did Australia Really Get Their Say on Who Won The Voice Australia?
After Lachie’s win was announced, fans of the show took to Twitter to share their frustration.
Some described Lachie as “the white boy” who had an “average voice”, while describing the POC contestants as “amazing singers with beautiful voices”.
Others noted it was Australia who apparently botched the vote, telling the audience to “get it together”.
Fans went on to call the results “predictable” and a “waste of time”, with one viewer going so far to describe the win as “white washing”.
Did Production Play the Wrong Alternate Ending?
Some of the contentions stemmed from the bizarre production strategy, where each contestant had to film their win and loss in advance.
However, according to Seven, fan votes did “entirely determine the winner”.
However, some fans requested a Trump-esque recount to see whether the votes were accurate.
Other viewers were quick to shut down the alleged “conspiracy theories”, instead urging Twitter users to direct their blame at the public who voted.
The two preceding season finales of The Voice Australia were also prerecorded.
In 2020, the grand finale was pre-filmed to adhere to COVID restrictions. When the series moved to Channel Seven in 2021, it was prerecorded for the same reason.
The Voice in 2022 has an average total audience of 1.38 million viewers nationally and has reached 8.2 million viewers on broadcast, with an additional 1.12 million on 7plus.
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