A thank you to The Voice Australia (RT) @TheVoiceAU

So tonight the first season of The Voice Australia comes to a close and then the excitement of Monday nights shall disappear until Season 2 comes around. In a very short space of time this show has changed the lives of not only the contestants involved but the audience who have witnessed this show play out. People have allowed themselves to open up to new artists, different styles of music and make many realise that there are thousands of talented people out there waiting for that step up into the spotlight. Not only that but this show has sent the Australian charts into meltdown, right at this very minute the top 9 spots on the ITunes top 10 are filled with the final 4 contestants songs that they performed last night and the Aria chart now has songs by many from the show scattered through its lists. And despite the fact only one will officially be crowned the winner tonight I think most of those who have appeared on the show shall have very long & happy careers.

So I say thank you to this show for not only giving me some wonderful & an amazing people to listen to on a daily basis but for allowing me to make a heap of new friends. The power of this show to connect people over social media has been simply outstanding and reiterates a post on here I made last month, which online friends are just as real as those you make in real life. It’s just in this case much easier to connect because you can relate to things much more quickly. This show has also helped repair lives, allowed people to heal all through the power of music and I hope it shall continue to do so for many more seasons to come.
So finally congratulations to not only the four finalists but to everyone who has appeared on this show and to the coaches. Australia loves you and is forever thankful you graced our screens and I think it’s safe to say we are all looking forward to supporting each and every one of you for a long time to come.

The Post i had to write (Please RT & READ)

This is a post I never expected to write, mainly because I am the type of person who keeps a lot of my problems in and just puts on a brave face. But tonight you could say I have been inspired to just put it all out there and finally open up a bit more.
I’ve never had what you would call a perfect life, I have had issues, I’ve never been popular, I’ve never been someone a guy would go out of their way to meet or ask out & if they did it would simply be a joke to use as fun later on. The older I have got the more I have closed myself off from people and I have simply just gone through the motions of life.
I have been bullied so badly over the years that there were times I just never wanted to leave my room and my nature to put others before myself got used so badly I was at one point doing other peoples homework or helping others just so I could be talked too. I’ll admit looking back at it now I was a silly naive girl but it was either this or nothing and I am not someone who deals well with having no-one.
A few people knew that 2008 was a year id rather forget but it was worse than that over the course of 12 months everything went wrong to the point where by the end where I tried to commit suicide. It was only an accident where Delta’s album fell on my head which stopped me, I spent most of the night listening to Mistaken Identify and I credit Delta as one of the people who saved my life. Delta slowly helped drag me out of the hell that 2008 had become and gave me a small ray of hope. Fast forward to the 16^th June 2012 and here I sit on my bed on a cold and rainy evening typing this trying to stop myself stressing over my Tafe course. There are good days now and then there are bad days but I try my best not to let myself slip to where I have been. What I do to stop myself is use my music and in the last few months 3 new artists have been added to a small list which keeps me from making any mistakes. Danni Da Ros, Glenn Cunningham & Rachael Leahcar all from The Voice have voices that can evoke the soul & Rachael in particular has brought me to tears on more than one occasion. Less than a month ago my mind was swirling and I cracked, causing me to feel as bad as I did in 2008 but I used all 3 I mentioned earlier to give me a kind of inner peace & now I listen to them daily.
People may have their opinions when I read this saying I possibly need help, but I’ve already had plenty. Music is my drug now and that keeps me sane, it inspires me and Delta, Glenn, Danni & Rachael have been a big part of that & I can never thank them enough.

And then there were 4 (The Voice)

And here we are the final 4. For the last few months we have been leading up to this point on The Voice and to be honest I am sad to see it coming to an end. I am not surprised by who was chosen by the coaches because nearly 6 weeks ago I made the call and said Rachael, Sarah, Darren & Karise would be the last ones standing and I was proven right. But what disappoints me is with the decision less than 2hrs old the hate has already begun.
Each one of the four finalists deserves to be there on their own merit. I knew the moment Karise opened her mouth at that blind audition that she would be hard to stop and her performance of Hallelujah tonight once again showed how remarkable she is. Sarah has a voice that could stop anyone in their tracks and has been one of the strongest performers from day 1. Darren has a smile and a love and joy for singing that warms the hearts of everyone who listens to him. And of course Rachael the girl who stunned all four coaches when they heard the emotion and power in her voice back at the blind auditions. The sad thing is each one of these four remarkable people is already getting some form of hate, more so than others. Rachael in particular has copped the brunt of this hate and I think this is more to do with her coach than her. To say Rachael only made the grand final out of sympathy is an absolute joke does that mean Glenn deserved it instead? I know full well that if Delta had chosen Glenn over Rachael the same people would have been shouting it was favouritism and so no-one would have been happy.
This show though has taught me something, there is no point in being depressed about seeing your favourite leave. After seeing one of my main favourites Danni leave the previous week it just made me want to support her even more. And that goes for all of the contestants. So I say there is no point hating the contestants or the coach, if you don’t like their music simply respect the fact that others do and leave it at that. We all came into this with our favourites and we leave with those same favourites and in my case a few extras. Depressed fans who are worried their favourite shall drop off the face of the planet shouldn’t worry either; most of these contestants won’t leave the public eye for too long after what they have gained from this show.  So in my opinion no-one has lost, in fact Australia has won, it shone a bright light onto some of the best talent in this country and gave them the shot they all deserved, and we should all be thankful for it.  So don’t hate the contestants, respect peoples choices and let us enjoy what we have..... some incredible musicians.

Its not the look its "The Voice"

I didn’t expect to write another one of these so quickly but a few things have been bothering me in recent days. Ever since the departure of Carmen hit the internet I have seen the knives come out once again and this time for The Voice itself. I have seen comments from all sorts of people saying that Carmen being forced to leave is wrong, that people with industry experience should also be kicked out or that The Voice should be about undiscovered talent. I am sorry but are you all blind? The point of a show like The Voice is very simple, this show is aimed at people who have industry experience who want to take the next step up in their career and become the household name that they so badly desire. Of course you are going to have those people who are just naturally gifted and have never considered doing anything about it until The Voice comes along.
I felt bad for Carmen when she left, god knows how she is feeling personally, if I had been her and learned that I had to leave id be devastated. She wanted so badly to be considered more than a backup singer and the chance was taken away. Sadly though that is the nature of television, anyone out there can claim it’s wrong and unjust but when you sign a contract you virtually hand over your soul for the period of your stay. In this instance Carmen broke the rules and Channel 9 was well within their rights to force her to go. I do hope Carmen does well, she deserves all the success in the world, and even though her stay was shorter than I think everyone expected, I hope she gets something out of it.
Something else that bothered me today were the negative comments that have been flying around about how every contestant has been repackaged to fit into some corporate box or how this show has now revealed its true identity to be the new version of Idol. People are entitled to their comments but the fact remains that negativity like that only proves how close-minded they are. I personally gave up on Australian Idol 3 seasons before the show was finally taken off air, mainly because I could see the cracks beginning to show. People who should have never made it past the audition stage were making it through to the later stages of the competition simply on the entertainment factor. Those people were being put into cute little boxes by record executives who knew they had marketing gold on their hands. Yet 90% of those contestants have now floated back into obscurity because they had no idea of the industry. But not just that, contestants who clearly had a voice that could sell records were being knocked back because they were not considered “right “or could not fit into that little box.
And a perfect example of this is Team Delta contestant & one of my favourites Danni Da Ros.
When I read in TV Week that Danni had auditioned for Idol back in 2007 I was shocked, mainly because someone with her kind of voice could have won the whole competition without any trouble. And yet she was knocked back because “She Wasn’t Marketable” I actually burst out laughing when I read it because of how stupid that sounded, because if you compare her voice to those who have made it as a finalist on Idol, she would blow the majority away. And this is why The Voice is different, your look is not important; none of these contestants fit into nice neat packages, and if they did this would be the most boring show ever. Individuality & being unique makes a show great and personally that’s why I love this show so much because everyone is very different and it allows them to connect to a much wider audience.

Stop Hating on Delta!

Ever since The Voice Australia started & Delta Goodrem returned to our screams as a coach I have slowly watched as the steady stream of haters has increased. To this point I have held my tongue hoping against hope that once the show had hit the live rounds that there would be more focus on the contestants rather than Delta herself. But alas I was wrong and instead the hating has got to the point where I can’t take it anymore. I am not ashamed to say that I have been a fan of Delta’s ever since I heard “I Don’t Care” by accident in a music store back in the early 2000’s at the time I thought she was a breath of fresh air that the Australian music scene was in desperate need of.
From that point on her music has gotten me through a lot of personal turmoil and even now listening to her music puts a smile on my face when I badly need it after a long day. At the time of her own personal hell this country proudly embraced her and gave Delta all the love and support she needed to fight through her darkest hour. Yet where has all that love gone now? Sadly the other night I was stupid enough to troll through some of the hash tags on Twitter and what I found appalled me. Delta being called all the stupid and horrible names under the sun, yet she has done nothing to deserve any of them.
One of the things that has always annoyed me about Australia is our love of tall poppy syndrome, cutting someone when they are down and once they are down stamping them into the ground until there is no way they can come back. Sadly I am seeing people right across the social media space sharpening their knives trying to cut Delta down at any opportunity. Some claim she can’t sing, well if you don’t like her music simply don’t listen. Some comment on her choice of clothes, so she isn’t allowed to be an individual now? Others say she is full of herself, Have you even met her? Actually sat down at had a conversation with her? For god sake. The last one particularly irks me because to judge someone on what they see on TV is ridiculous. I may have never met Delta myself but I know plenty of people who have and what they all say is the same thing. Never has anyone been more willing to give their time & appreciate you coming to see them than Delta. After all how many musicians with her star power would stay signing autographs & chatting to people long after the shops had shut their doors? None that come to my mind. The woman has a bigger heart than many celebs I have ever seen and has changed so many lives, including mine that I think she deserves a little more respect than she has received.
The point of this post is simple; bullying a celeb on any of the forms of social media is pointless and stupid. How would you feel if someone you loved and admired was attacked and then stopped answering tweets or closed their account altogether? You wouldn’t like it. And I certainly as hell can’t stand the bullshit that Delta has been copping. If you don’t have anything good to say keep it to yourself and don’t ruin it for those people who consider themselves fans, because none of us can take it anymore.