Chris Sebastian
The impacts of coronavirus have been far reaching, even in ways we perhaps never would have considered. For Sydney’s Chris Sebastian, brother of Guy, his victory on this year’s version of The Voice became a surreal and unusual experience thanks to COVIDSafe practices.
Not only did COVID-19 impact the show format and taping schedules but it also meant that the grand finale had to be produced in a very unique manner. Where typically The Voice would culminate in a grand showcase events with the finalists battling it out in-front of a live audience this year they had to perform without a crowd and even record multiple variations of the result explained Sebastian.
“The year was wild, we actually had to film four alternate endings a little under a week before the finale. Once the voting lines closed and the votes were tallied they company tallying the votes had three minutes to tell the network which ending to play.”
This strategy meant that Chris learned of his victory at the same time as the rest of the country.
“When I recorded the ending I didn’t know that I was actually winning. When I saw the result though I was genuinely shocked and in disbelief… I was completely shook because the other three contestants were so ridiculously good that I truly believe it could have been any one of us walking away with it.”
Reflecting on the experience taping the finale Sebastian said it certainly “wasn’t glamorous” because in between takes they had to “wait while they vacuumed up all of the confetti” before repeating the process.
Throughout the series the show also had to implement COVIDSafe practices, which Chis believes had an “enormous” impact on the show.
“The performances definitely would have taken a hit because of the long days and lack of an audience” explained Sebastian. “I’m rubbish when I’m tired and some of the days which were incredibly long. My playoff performance where I sang 24 Carat Magic by Bruno Mars was 18 hours for example, I arrived at 6:30am and left at 12:30am.”
For Chris having his brother Guy as part of the judging panel wasn’t something he has become used to over the years.
“Being critiqued by Guy is definitely not new for me. If he doesn’t like something he’s going to tell me real quick.”
Having now come out as the 2020 winner Chris explained that the real work begins now.
“The TV show is great in that it has given me a launch pad but it’s not the defining thing about my music career… Now I want to go and write great songs, work with great people and make some great music.”
