Since 2012 the country’s highest-rated music contest “Voice” has been walking around the country - an analogue of the international television project The Voice, which once started for the first time in the Netherlands. The success of the first seasons, which caused a wave of admiration among the audience for the abundance of talents, led to the expectation that the fourth in its composition would surpass the previous ones. But the first responses in September 2015 became, rather, a buzz of disappointment and discontent. Is this due to general discomfort due to a change in the team of mentors or, indeed, diminished talents in Russia?
How did the applicants become participants in the Voice-4 show?
The aim of the project is to search for extraordinary performers who are able to squeeze pertinent artists on the domestic stage. The show’s website, created by Channel One, collects applications from everyone who wants to demonstrate their vocal abilities. The season of 2015 collected more than 10 thousand requests for participation in the casting held in Ostankino. A strict jury led by Yuri Aksyuta and general director of the Russian representative office of the UMG media holding Dmitry Kononov heard hundreds of speeches, selecting participants in blind auditions.
Music editors did not waste time searching for talents all over the country: in restaurants, on pop venues and video hosting sites. The project “Golos” (season 4) was launched, the list of participants of which in the amount of 147 people, formed in the spring, was given on September 4, 2015. More than 60 songs were offered to the selected participants so that they could show their best in blind auditions.
Participants of the "Voice" (season 4): list of the team of Alexander Gradsky
The final stage of the television contest came 57 people. Instead of 14 participants, the experienced Gradsky chose 15, conquered by the performance of Alexandra Streltsova’s song of the rock band Aria. The taken upper note in f-sharp decided her fate in the project. Traditionally, the mentor's team included the most professionally trained vocalists: Alla Reed, winner of the Grand Prix of the Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Olga Sergeyeva and Elena Minina, graduates of the Gnesinsky School, his student Emil Kadyrov.
For other participants, fate is associated either with GITIS or with the conservatory: Muscovite Diana Savelyeva serves in the operetta theater, Alexander Postolenko is known for participating in the musical “Notre Dame de Paris”, Lilia Zalimulina successfully teaches vocals. Students Elena Romanova and Nana Hutl became a real decoration of the Voice project (season 4). According to the rules of the competition, the list of participants of the Gradsky team was replenished with contestants who lost their fights with other mentors. The student of the conservatory Alexandra Grekova and the winner of the “New Wave” of 2010 Tatyana Shirko logically fit into the team of the master.
Among the professionally trained musicians were the son of the famous singer Georgy Seryshev, and a graduate of the Ural Conservatory Mikhail Ivanov (Ozerov), who achieved the best result in the team of A. Gradsky. Thirty-four-year-old tenor came to conquer Moscow, speaking on the grounds of the Park named after Gorky. The contest became minutes of real fame for him, allowing him to prove himself in songs from the repertoire of both the master himself and in the unforgettable duet “How Young We Were”. A feature of the fourth season for the eminent mentor was the appearance in his team of a real nugget - twenty-year-old university student of Simferopol Daniil Smirnov, the only one who did not have a professional education, but won the hearts of many spectators.
The composition of the team Polina Gagarina
Viewers least of all believed in the talent of a mentor to a young, but already proven singer. Polina Gagarina, meanwhile, managed to create a precedent hitherto unprecedented for the project: the participant she saved during the fights, Olga Zadonskaya, became the finalist of the competition, taking the honorable third place. And among those selected during the blind auditions there were many talents that adorned the project Voice 4 season. The list of participants is rightfully headed by real professionals - Semyon Velichko, Ilona Solomonova, Yana Bashkiryova, Sevak Khanagyan and Ivan Dalmatov, who performed in the New Year’s music program of the first channel.
Many unforgettable moments are connected with the contestants from the team of Polina Gagarina: Stanislav Obukhov, who she saved from the Gradsky team, made an offer of a hand and heart to her lover live, Jean Osyan impressed with his resemblance to the presenter Dmitry Nagiyev, and Ekaterina Chistova with stylish outfits made by her own hands . The real decoration of the project was Regina Todorenko, a TV presenter, who conquered the audience with an irrepressible temperament.
In conditions of high competition, Sophie Okran, Anastasia Krashevskaya, Daria Behenar and Karina Tsvetkova, rightly “saved” by Basta, left the team early. But it was a wonderful team, in no way inferior to the teams of other mentors.
Participants of the "Voice" (season 4): list
The photo of the Basta team shows a close-knit, young and courageous team, ready to move forward, despite obstacles. The organizers of the television project explained the participation of the famous rapper in the jury with the desire to attract fans of YouTube to the audience of the first channel, where Basta is the leader of the views. An extraordinary jury member expanded the format of the competition, allowing representatives of various nationalities to express themselves: Brazilian Gabriele Silva, with her amazing Lambada, Armenians Amalia Margaryan and Raffa Grigoryan, unforgettable nugget from Kazakhstan Binazir Ermaganbetova.
His team created unusual bright numbers: the touching duet of Roses, Cypriot Yuri Melikov and the Volgograd girl Anastasia Balakhnina, the fiery All About That Bass performed by Maria Eroyan and Ellina Reshetnikova. His team includes people who are able to surprise: interesting musicians Dmitry Golubev and Nikolai Zabolotskikh, Ekaterina Kokorina and Yulia Khusainova, Sergey Urumyan and Era Kann. The latter not only managed to become a finalist of the “Voice” project (season 4), the list of participants of which included many interesting rock artists, but also was remembered for the enchanting composition of Zombie.
Contestants Gregory Leps
The formation of a creative team for a television project debutant, a successful musician and a recognized master was not easy. At the first stage, Leps rarely turned his chair around to the participants, looking for the real pearls of the show. As a result, he assembled a very controversial team. “Downed pilots” are named by the participants of the “Voice” (season 4) chosen by them, the list of which was led by Lady Blues 2000, Eurovision participant (9th place) and professional with 25 years of experience, Maria Katz. In the same line was Rodion Gazmanov, who remained the soulful performer of the song “Lucy”, but significantly grew up, ex-participant in the sensational show “House -2” Oleg Krivikov (Miami), who was popular in certain circles of corporate performers, the owner of the Golden Cylinder - 2015 »Artyom Katorgin.
The Leps team included the charismatic Olivia Crash, Vyacheslav Doronin, Denis Sokolov, Konstantin Rabotov. The strong and piercing voices of Alina Perova, Renata Volkievich and Armen Avjan are on a par with the best participants in the television project of all seasons. But the hearts of the audience were given to those in whom the genius Leps discerned a special ingredient - a piece of his own soul. These are the most popular participants in the Voice show (season 4). The list of participants is rightly headed by the winner - Hieromonk Photius, as if he came to the project with a specific mission - to make people better. At the stage of fights, Ella Khrustalyova left the race, but she lost to the future triumph, performing with him in a duet Canto della terra, where two souls joined in an unusually piercing song. The leader of the views on the Channel One website remains the performance at the blind auditions of another bright participant who is prophesied a great future - Vitold Petrovsky.
Acceptance of applications for participation in the Voice (season 5) has begun, and, therefore, the list of talented performers will be replenished with new names.