Starcom’s Josh Alvarez has won this year's first The Voice Ultimate Live Band Karaoke Battle, as the annual singing competition, held by Nine, kicked off in Sydney.
As part of the initiative run by the network, Sydney’s media agencies went head to head for the glory of being crowned the 2019 “Media Voice of Sydney”.
This year’s judges were Liana Dubois, Nine’s recently appointed director of Powered, Jacinta Gulisano one of The Voice Australia’s 2018 final contestants and Mark Brooks from Rockaoke who awarded Alarvez a double pass to The Voice Grand Finale plus a $1,000 Merivale gift voucher for his agency team.
A contested field of seven different media agency singers saw Alarvez emerge as the winner with his interpretation of the classics ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder and ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ by Elton John.
Before a crowd of over 150 people at The Beresford in Surry Hills, Alarvez triumphed in the eyes of the judges as he went head-to-head with a power duet from indie shop Pearman, comprised of Hayley Aiken and Lex Brassil.
This wasn't Alarvez's first time on the Sydney stage, as he also competed at last year's battle, which was ultimately won by PHD's Beatriz Grattan-Smith.
Other honourable mentions on the night go to Ciara Hayes from Zenith, with the "bravest performance" of the night with her stripped back version of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.
The judges singled out Hayes' performance, a solo on guitar, noting: “As The Voice’s Guy Sebastian would say, you were really in that song.”
The other contestants and their performances included:
- Kyle Sapsford from Mindshare: I believe in a Thing Called Love by the Darkness.
- Hari Caulfield from Frontier: Beyond by Leon Bridges
- Cameron Chu from UM: Wherever You Will Go by The Calling
- Karl Faustino from Dentsu: Who Knew by Pink
The Voice Ultimate Live Band Karaoke Battle is coming to Perth (March 27), Brisbane (March 28), Melbourne (April 4) and Adelaide (April 10).
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