The Voice (franchise)


The Voice is an international reality television singing competition franchise of Dutch origin. It is based on the reality singing competition The Voice of Holland, which was originally created by Dutch television producer John de Mol. Many other countries have adapted the format and begun airing their own versions since 2010. It has become a rival to the Idols franchise, Rising Star and The X Factor. As of 2020, the franchise is owned by ITV Studios.

History

's John de Mol, creator of Big Brother, first created The Voice concept with Dutch singer Roel van Velzen. Erland Galjaard, a Dutch program director, asked John de Mol about whether he could come up with a format that went a step further than The X Factor. De Mol then came up with the idea of Blind Audition. He wanted to focus on singing quality alone, so the coaches must be top artists in the music industry. The rotating chairs concept was invented by Roel van Velzen. It would also be the first talent show in which social media was actively involved.
On 17 September 2010, The Voice of Holland began to air on RTL 4 with Angela Groothuizen, Roel van Velzen, Nick & Simon, and Jeroen van der Boom as the mentor-judges of the show. The show proved to be an instant success in the Netherlands.
The format was later sold to different countries, in many cases replacing a previous Endemol music contest format, Operation Triumph / Star Academy.

Original format

The show's format features five stages of competition: producers' auditions, blind auditions, battle rounds, knockouts, and live performance shows.

Blind auditions

Contestants are aspiring singers drawn from public auditions, which are not broadcast. Unlike Idols and The X Factor, the producers pick fewer contestants, which are deemed "the best artists", to perform in the broadcast auditions. The first televised stage is the blind auditions, in which the four coaches, all noteworthy recording artists, listen to the contestants in chairs facing away from the stage so as to avoid seeing them. If a coach likes what they hear from that contestant, they press a button to rotate their chairs to signify that they are interested in working with that contestant. If more than one coach presses their button, the contestant chooses the coach he or she wants to work with. The blind auditions end when each coach has a set number of contestants to work with. Coaches will dedicate themselves to developing their singers mentally, musically and in some cases physically, giving them advice, and sharing the secrets of their success.

Battles

The contestants who successfully pass the blind auditions proceed to the battle rounds, where the coaches put two or sometimes three of their own team members against each other to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience. After the vocal face-off, the coach must choose only one to advance. If no specific winner can be identified, either the competition turns to a game of fate via a coin toss, or the coach may combine them into a duo throughout the rest of the competition. In rare cases the coach can also choose to advance neither one. In some versions, there are steals where opposing coaches can steal a contestant who was voted off by their own coach by pressing their button. As in the blind auditions, if more than one coach presses their button, the contestant chooses which coach they want. Each coach has a set number of steals, usually one or two.

Knockouts

The knockout round was introduced in 2012, and is implemented in some versions. The winners of the battle rounds proceed to this rounds.
As in the battle rounds, coaches put members of their own team members to compete against each other. This time, the contestants choose their own song to perform individually while the other watches and waits. After that, the coach chooses one to advance while the other is sent home. At the end of the knockout rounds, the strongest members of each coach's roster proceed to the live stage shows. Some versions include steals. Like in the battle round, the opposing coaches can steal a contestant who was voted off by their own coach by pressing their button. Similar to the blind auditions, if more than one coach presses their button, the contestant chooses which coach they want.

Live shows

In the final performance phase of the competition, the top contestants from each team compete against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience vote to save one contestant on each team, leaving the coach to decide on live television who they want to save and who will not move on. In the next round, the public chooses between the two artists left on each team, and the coach also has a vote that weighs equally with the public vote.
Finally, each coach will have his/her best contestant left standing to compete in the finals, singing an original song. From these four or five, one will be named "The Voice"—and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract. Universal Music Group is the general record company associated and affiliated with The Voice format in most countries.

Social media participation

One of the cornerstones of The Voice format is the social media participation via Twitter, Facebook and the especially designed platform "connect." Users are able to log in via their Facebook account and retrieve background information about the show. The platform also offers the possibility to stream the show online as well as to vote, interact with friends and to discuss various topics and questions asked by the producers throughout the show.

Format variations

Blind audition twists

Starting from the fifth season of The Voice of Holland, if all the coaches rejected one specific contestant, the losing contestant would leave the stage straight away, without any conversations with the coaches, and the chairs would remain unturned. The format is currently used in some versions, most notably, the U.K. version. It was used in the fifth season of the Vocea României, the fourth to sixth season of The Voice Belgique and in the sixth season of The Voice of Albania, but then was abandoned in later seasons.
The American version introduced a new mechanism in the blind auditions on the fourteenth season, the Block button. When a coach wants to get the specific contestant but does not want another coach to do so, he/she may press the block button to block them from getting the contestant, and then turn around at the same time. The coach who is blocked, will not know until he/she presses the main button, and after that he/she will get the word stating that he/she is blocked, instead of his/her name in the LED floor. A coach can use the block button once in a season, and only one block is allowed per audition. The Block twist was then applied in :
The sixth season of The Voice Kids of Vietnam had a new feature called The Mute button. As its name implies, the muted coach will not be allowed to speak, but they can still do all the kind of body language to convince the contestant to join their team. However, the Mute only adds excitement to the program, as contestant can still pick the muted team. Each coach has only one Mute per audition. The slight change happened in the fourth season of Sing! China wherein the coach that was being muted will or will not make the chair turn but will still be able to be selected by contestant.
The Wildcard round was introduced in the first two seasons of The Voice of Holland, wherein the selected failed contestants of the blind auditions were screened and would perform via radio program Radio 538. Some coaches will select if they want that contestant on their team to compete in the battles, but it was abandoned in the later seasons. It was reintroduced in the 15th season of the U.S. version where it is now called as "The Comeback Stage". On it, a fifth coach will mentor six contestants that failed to make a team in the blind auditions, and they will compete against each other in a digital companion series, with the winner securing a spot in the Top 13. Later, it was removed on the seventeenth season. This was acquired in the ninth season of The Voice of Germany, in the fourth season of The Voice Indonesia, in the second season of La Voz USA and in the of La Voz.
The sixth season of Giọng hát Việt introduced The Switch. If a coach has already filled his/her team but interest in a contestant later, he/she can press the Switch button to swap that contestant with one of the chosen artists before. Each coach only has one Switch during the course of the Blind auditions. The Special coach was also introduced this season, a role that shares similarities with the U.S. version's Comeback Stage coach. Instead of turning away from the stage as usual, the special coach's chair stay towards the stage during all performances, allowing him/her to know how the contestants look like, he/she has the ability to choose unlimited contestants, unlike other coaches, and his/her selection button is still valid even when the contestant has finished his/her performance. However, the special coach can only select contestant that were not chosen by three other coaches.

Battles twists

The seventh season of The Voice of Holland features non stop steal, which means that steals during the battle rounds follow a hot-seat procedure: a coach may replace his or her stolen contestant as many times as he or she likes until the end of the battles. This feature also applies in the seventh season of The Voice of Poland, the seventh season of Vocea României, fifth season of The Voice van Vlaanderen, the fifth season of The Voice Portugal, the sixth season of, the fourth season of The Voice Ahla Sawt, and the ninth season of The Voice of Germany.
Another format was introduced in the fourth season of La Voz Kids España. The remaining contestants that was saved by the coaches will proceed to the fast-paced Battle Rounds wherein the supercoach will decide who will proceed to the live semi-finals.
The fifth season of Giọng hát Việt features no-elimination, which is used only once throughout the battles when a coach does not want to eliminate one of two their contestants and wants to keep them in the next round. A coach has to ask and gets consent from both contestants. After getting consent, two contestants were retained and would become a duo, combined together throughout the rest of the competition; if a coach does not get consent, they must choose only one to advance to the knockouts as the original format.

Knockouts twists

The third season of The Voice South Africa introduced a new way to conduct the Knockout round: After each contestant's solo performance, the respective coach will have to decide whether they are in the Safe Zone or the Danger Zone. Each coach can only send three contestants to the Safe Zone but also have two steals across the round. After all members from one team have concluded their performances, the coach will save a number of artists from the Danger Zone to move on to the Battles. Contestants who are sent to the Danger Zone but not chosen by their coach or get stolen by another coach will be eliminated. However, audience can also vote for the artist in the Danger Zone by televoting. This rule was then applied in the of , where six artists will be chosen for the Safe Zone, but public's vote is not included.

Live shows twists

The cross-battle was introduced in the semi-final round of the fourth season of The Voice of Holland. In this round, two contestants from two different teams compete against each other and the public vote determines who will advance. This also applies from the third season until the sixth season of The Voice of Greece, as well as the sixteenth season of The Voice and the second season of La Voz in the United States.

Non-televised shows

There were non-televised shows as not seen in the various format of the franchise such as The Voice of the Ocean with Princess Cruises, The Voice of the Sea with Costa Cruises and The Voice Univa with Grupo Telecentro in Argentina.

''The Voice'' around the world

A combined 445 singers have won The Voice, The Voice Kids, The Voice Teens and The Voice Senior in 145 countries/regions. Each winner is given a recording contract, a monetary prize, and a title as that nation's "Voice". The first winner was Ben Saunders of The Voice of Holland and the most recent was Chris Sebastian from the Australian Version of The Voice.
آواز افغانستان
The Voice of AfghanistanTolo TV

Africa FrançafriqueThe Voice Afrique Francophone:fr:VoxAfrica|VoxAfrica


Africa FrançafriqueThe Voice Kids Afrique Francophone:fr:VoxAfrica|VoxAfrica


Albania
KosovoThe Voice of AlbaniaTop Channel



Albania
KosovoThe Voice KidsTop Channel



Angola
Mozambique:pt:The Voice Angola|The Voice AngolaDstv


Arab WorldThe Voice – أحلى صوت
The Voice – Best VoiceMBC1
LBCI



Arab World'
The Voice Kids – Best VoiceMBC1
LBCI



Arab WorldThe Voice SeniorMBC1
LBCI



Argentina
UruguayLa Voz Argentina
The Voice ArgentinaTelefe



ArmeniaՀայաստանի ձայնը
The Voice of ArmeniaArmenia TV


AustraliaThe VoiceNine Network

AustraliaThe Voice KidsNine Network


AzerbaijanSəs Azərbaycan
The Voice of AzerbaijanCurrent
itv
Former
AzTV

AzerbaijanSəs Uşaqlar
The Voice Kids Azerbaijanitv


Belgium
Flanders
WalloniaThe Voice van Vlaanderen
The Voice of Flandersvtm



Belgium
Flanders
WalloniaThe Voice Kids vtm



Belgium
Flanders
WalloniaThe Voice Seniorvtm



Belgium
Flanders
WalloniaThe Voice Belgique
The Voice BelgiumLa Une
VivaCité



Belgium
Flanders
WalloniaThe Voice Kids Belgique
The Voice Kids BelgiumLa Une
VivaCité



BrazilThe Voice BrasilRede Globo



BrazilThe Voice KidsRede Globo



BulgariaГласът на България
The Voice of BulgariabTV



CambodiaThe Voice CambodiaHang Meas HDTV


CambodiaThe Voice Kids CambodiaHang Meas HDTV


Canada
QuebecLa Voix
The VoiceTVA


Canada
QuebecLa Voix Junior
The Voice JuniorTVA


ChileThe Voice ChileCanal 13


China
The Voice of China – Best Voice of ChinaZhejiang TV


China Sing! China
中国新歌声 New Singing of China
中国好声音 Best Voice of China Zhejiang TV

ColombiaLa Voz Colombia
The Voice ColombiaCaracol Television


ColombiaLa Voz Kids
The Voice KidsCaracol Television


ColombiaLa Voz Teens
The Voice Teens
OriginalCaracol Television


CroatiaCurrent
The Voice Hrvatska
The Voice of Croatia
Former
The Voice – Najljepši glas Hrvatske
The Voice – The Most Beautiful Voice of Croatia HRT 1



SlovakiaCurrent
The Voice Česko Slovensko
Former
Hlas Česko Slovenska
The Voice of Czecho SlovakiaTV Nova
Markíza


Denmark
Faroe Islands
GreenlandVoice – Danmarks største stemme
Voice – The Biggest Voice of DenmarkTV 2


Denmark
Faroe Islands
GreenlandVoice JuniorCurrent
Kanal 5
Former
TV 2


EcuadorLa Voz Ecuador
The Voice EcuadorTeleamazonas



FinlandThe Voice of FinlandNelonen


FinlandThe Voice KidsNelonen


FranceThe Voice – la plus belle voixTF1



FranceThe Voice KidsTF1



Georgiaახალი ქართული ხმა
The Voice of GeorgiaImedi TV


Georgiaახალი საბავშო ხმა
The Voice KidsImedi TV


GermanyThe Voice of GermanyProSieben
Sat.1



GermanyThe Voice KidsSat.1



GermanyThe Voice SeniorSat.1


Greece
CyprusThe Voice of GreeceCurrent
Skai TV
Sigma TV
Former
ANT1


Greece
CyprusThe Voice KidsANT1
Hungary
The Voice – Voice of HungaryTV2


IcelandThe Voice Ísland
The Voice IcelandSjónvarp Símans


IndiaThe Voice IndiaCurrent
StarPlus
Former
&TV



IndiaThe Voice India Kids&TV


IndonesiaThe Voice IndonesiaCurrent
GTV
Former
Indosiar
RCTI



IndonesiaThe Voice Kids IndonesiaGTV


IrelandThe Voice of IrelandRTÉ One


IsraelThe Voice ישראל
The Voice IsraelChannel 13
Reshet



ItalyThe Voice of ItalyRai 2
Rai HD



ItalyThe Voice SeniorRai 1

JapanThe VoiceTBA


KazakhstanQazaqstan Dauisi
The Voice of Kazakhstan
Голос Казахстана
The Voice KazakhstanKazakhstan
Perviy Kanal Evraziya


KazakhstanГолос Дети Казахстана
The Voice Kids KazakhstanPerviy Kanal Evraziya


LithuaniaLietuvos Balsas
The Voice of LithuaniaLNK


LithuaniaLietuvos balsas. Vaikai
The Voice of Lithuania. KidsLNK


LithuaniaLietuvos balsas. Senjorai
The Voice of Lithuania. SeniorLNK


Malaysia
SingaporeThe Voice |
The Voice – Battle for the Best VoiceStarHub TV E City
Astro AEC


MexicoCurrent
La Voz
Former
La Voz... México
The Voice... MexicoCurrent
Azteca Uno
Former
Las Estrellas



MexicoLa Voz Kids
The Voice KidsCurrent
Azteca Uno
Former
Las Estrellas



MexicoLa Voz Senior
The Voice SeniorAzteca Uno


MongoliaThe Voice of MongoliaMongol TV



MyanmarThe Voice MyanmarMRTV-4


NepalThe Voice of NepalCurrent
Himalaya Television
Former
Kantipur
Kantipur HD



NetherlandsThe Voice of Holland
OriginalRTL 4



NetherlandsThe Voice Kids
OriginalRTL 4



NetherlandsThe Voice Senior
OriginalRTL 4



NigeriaThe Voice NigeriaCurrent
TBA
Former
Africa Magic


NigeriaThe Voice KidsTBA

NorwayThe Voice – Norges beste stemme
The Voice – Norway's Best VoiceTV2



PeruLa Voz Peru
The Voice PeruFrecuencia Latina


PeruLa Voz Kids
The Voice KidsFrecuencia Latina


PhilippinesThe Voice of the PhilippinesABS-CBN
Kapamilya Channel
Jeepney TV


PhilippinesThe Voice KidsABS-CBN
Kapamilya Channel
Jeepney TV


PhilippinesThe Voice TeensABS-CBN
Kapamilya Channel
Jeepney TV


PolandThe Voice of PolandTVP2


PolandThe Voice KidsTVP2


PolandThe Voice SeniorTVP2


PortugalCurrent
The Voice Portugal
Former
A Voz de Portugal
The Voice of PortugalRTP1


PortugalThe Voice KidsRTP1


Romania
MoldovaVocea României
The Voice of RomaniaPro TV
Pro TV Chișinău



Romania
MoldovaVocea României Junior
The Voice of Romania JuniorPro TV
Pro TV Chișinău



RussiaГолос
The VoiceChannel One



RussiaГолос. Дети
The Voice KidsChannel One



RussiaГолос. 60+
The Voice 60+Channel One



South AfricaThe Voice South AfricaM-Net



South KoreaThe Voice of KoreaMnet



South KoreaThe Voice KidsMnet



Spain
AndorraLa Voz
The VoiceCurrent
Antena 3
Former
Telecinco



Spain
AndorraLa Voz Kids
The Voice KidsCurrent
Antena 3
Former
Telecinco



Spain
AndorraLa Voz Senior
The Voice SeniorAntena 3


Sri LankaThe Voice Teens Sri LankaSirasa TV


SwedenThe Voice Sverige
The Voice SwedenTV4


SwitzerlandThe Voice of Switzerland
Current
3+
Former
SRF 1


ThailandThe Voice เสียงจริงตัวจริง
The Voice ThailandCurrent
PPTV36
Former
Channel 3
3 HD
True4U



ThailandThe Voice KidsCurrent
PPTV36
Former
Channel 3
3 HD
True4U



ThailandThe Voice SeniorPPTV36



TurkeyO Ses Türkiye
The Voice TurkeyCurrent
TV8
Former
Show TV
Star TV


TurkeyO Ses Çocuklar
The Voice KidsStar TV
TV8


UkraineГолос країни
The Voice of Ukraine1+1



UkraineГолос. Діти
The Voice Kids1+1



United KingdomThe Voice UKCurrent
ITV
Former'
BBC One



United KingdomThe Voice KidsITV



United States
and Caribbean countriesThe VoiceNBC



United States
and Caribbean countriesLa Voz Kids
The Voice KidsTelemundo


United States
and Caribbean countriesLa Voz
The VoiceTelemundo


VietnamGiọng hát Việt
The Voice of VietnamVTV3
VTV3 HD



VietnamGiọng hát Việt nhí
The Voice Kids of Vietnam''VTV3
VTV3 HD




Multi-franchise coaches

The following coaches had appeared in multiple franchises:
The following contestants became coaches in The Voice franchises:
  • Ali Hoàng Dương – Winner Contestant: Vietnam – Coach: Vietnam
  • – Contestant: Vietnam – Coach: Vietnam
  • Chingiz Mustafayev – Contestant: Ukraine – Coach: Azerbaijan
  • – Winner Contestant: Vietnam – Coach: Vietnam
  • Kendji Girac – Winner Contestant: France – Coach: France
  • Krista Siegfrids – Contestant: Finland – Coach: Finland
  • Laura Tesoro – Runner-up Contestant: Belgium – Coach: Belgium
  • Max Giesinger – Contestant: Germany – Coach: Germany
  • Michael Schulte - Contestant: Germany – Comeback stage Coach: Germany
  • Monika Marija – Winner Contestant: Lithuania – Coach: Lithuania
  • Sevak Khanagyan – Contestant: Russia – Coach: Armenia
  • Slimane – Winner Contestant: France – Coach: Belgium
  • Vũ Cát Tường – Runner-up Contestant: Vietnam – Coach: Vietnam
  • Yuval Dayan – Contestant: Israel – Coach: Israel