It's a wrap - The Voice Au Grand Finale

After spending the last 4 weeks live tweeting from my couch during The Voice AU live finals I was very excited to be heading back to The Voice arena for the Grand Finale yesterday all thanks to Vodafone Au.

Talk about an extra special VIP experience and a half….  

At 1pm I was again picked up by my driver Alex in his Mercedes who was just a true gentleman and made the beginning of my journey ever so pleasant as we made our way to the studio.

On arrival at Fox Studios I met with my fellow Team Vodafone compadre Kate Patto and the very lovely Lisa from Shine Australia.  We were all very excited.

We then headed into The Voice AU on site office to have a quick chat with Holly who is the head of Social Media.  Holly gave us a quick run-down and the hash tags to be used for the night. Of course #thevoiceau and we were told to use the #grandfinale which was apparently created by Joel Madden when he used it one of the live shows! You gotta love Joel for his creative use of words during the live finals.

Our favourite Vodafone girl Alice then joined us and we were escorted by Lisa to the room where magic takes place. In the make-up room, Caterina Torres, Celia Pavey and the soulful Miss Murphy were also present. I said hello to Caterina and I grabbed her phone number.  

 I could not believe how fast the make-up artists worked to get us all done up and what a fab job they did!

On my way to get dressed I bumped into Celia Pavey again and I gave her a hug for good luck.  Mitch Anderson and I caught up and I had a quick chat with Danny Ross and also wished him luck.

After whipping on my electric blue crepe “China Girl” dress made for me by my designer friend Voislav, I headed back to the make-up room. It was at this moment I wish I had started singing “Lost without you, can’t help myself”... The one and only Robin Thicke was sitting in the chair having his hair worked. Ahh! It really was a magical room.

Finally it was time to meet the coaches. A small of group of people gathered in the VIP tent and 15 minutes later Delta Goodrem, Seal, Ricky Martin and Joel Madden arrived on the scene. They were all so lovely. I hugged each and everyone one of them especially Ricky and I handed them a copy of my brother Mike Champion's CD. They all said “Oh Mike, we loved his performance." I was so happy.

I had heard from my friend Zaidee, that Seal loved poetry so I asked Seal what his favourite Rumi poem was and he began to recite: "Whatever, did I lose in dying..” for Kate and I.  Halfway through the recital, he stopped, snapped his fingers and said "You've given me an idea.” I wonder what the idea was?

I told Ricky how much I had loved watching him on the show and he thanked me. Delta told me she loved my dress and style – chuffed.  Joel told us how much he loved the show and what it does to support great Australian talent. He didn't have his toothpick with him.

At this time, Kate and I had stop and soak up the moment and we had a toast to the fact that we just had the chance to meet four world class artists. Thank you Vodafone!

After a quick bite with the crew we then hit the red carpet. I just love the red carpet. Lots of screaming girls, Darren McMullen and the top 16 artists and their coaches strutting their stuff. We grabbed some photos with finalists Harrison and Celia and Seal used my camera to take a pic of us together.

Ricky said hi again and he told me he had received my tweet. I have to admit, I was completely star struck by Ricky Martin. What a man, What a mighty mighty good man.

1. 
   Angel Champion ‏@AnAngelChampion23h

   I just met @ricky_martin OMG!!!! He is just gorgeous! #thevoiceau #grandfinale #teamvodafone

Upon entering The Voice AU arena you could feel the electrifying energy in the room and it was fabulous that the live performances amplified this energy.

Three highlights for me were of course, Robin Thicke with “Blurred Lines”.  He brought it with his banging hit and world class performance.  Ricky Martin and Luke Kennedy blew my mind with their version of “Roxanne” and you could just feel the love between Seal and The Voice of 2013 Harrison Craig in their rendition of “His My Brother”. I feel privileged to have been there to witness it all first hand.

I have to say The Voice is one of the best reality shows to hit the Australian television. Not only does it arouse so many emotions in you, but it is the greatest platform for local Aussie artists to be seen and heard and also offers them an amazing life experience.

If you have a Voice I suggest you audition for next year’s show! You have nothing to lose!

A shout out to all the production team of 200 + at Shine Australia that work tirelessly to bring us The Voice Au and who do such an amazing job to make it happen.  Thanks especially to Lisa Coren and Dave Emery for making our experience so very special.

Congrats to Harrison Craig for his well deserved crowning of The Voice of Australia 2013 and also to Super Coach Seal for his second win in a row.

A big thank you to Vodafone Australia for giving me this opportunity to report all the behind the scenes action, I am truly grateful.

Until next year that’s a wrap for Team Vodafone.