Darwin rapper Yung Milla had all four Coaches fighting for him on Tuesday night’s The Voice Australia, delivering a four-chair Blind Audition before choosing Melanie C as the competition continued on Seven and 7plus.
The 22-year-old support worker and Aboriginal artist took to the stage with All My Life, an original song by his brother J-MILLA, in an audition that quickly attracted the attention of Melanie C, Ronan Keating, Kate Miller-Heidke and Richard Marx.
All four Coaches turned their chairs for the Darwin, NT, performer, setting up a contest to secure him for their respective teams.
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Yung Milla had earlier shared his experience of growing up around adversity, speaking about the influence of his mother and his ambition to use music to create opportunities for other people in his community.
The audition also became a family affair when J-MILLA, the brother who inspired Yung Milla’s love of music, joined him on stage after the Blind Audition.
The brothers performed together as the Coaches watched on, before the attention returned to the battle over which team Yung Milla would join.
Melanie C was emphatic in her assessment.
“world class”
She also said she had never felt a room change in the way it had during his audition.
Ronan Keating was similarly impressed, describing what he had witnessed as:
“one of the best things I’ve ever seen on The Voice.”
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Richard Marx declared that everyone would remember where they were when they first heard Yung Milla.
But Melanie C had another advantage in the battle for the rapper, using her block on Richard Marx before securing Yung Milla for Team Melanie C.
It was not the only four-chair turn of the night.
Cherry Green, 24, from Ipswich, Queensland, had every Coach turn following his rendition of Wilson Pickett’s Everybody Needs Somebody.
Born in Rwanda, Green moved to Australia as a child after arriving as a refugee. He spoke about music helping him navigate loneliness and find connection after the move.
His performance again left four Coaches with a decision to sell themselves to the artist.
Kate Miller-Heidke praised Green’s individual style and energy, while Melanie C said the joy in his performance was infectious.
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For Ronan Keating, the singer was “gold dust”, while Richard Marx described him as a compelling performer.
This time it was Marx who won the contest, with Green selecting Team Richard.
Renee Naccari also emerged with plenty of options after taking on Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra.
The 24-year-old Pilates instructor from Doreen, Victoria, received a three-chair turn before choosing Team Ronan.
Her appearance came after a significant setback in 2024, when Naccari underwent vocal cord surgery for nodules and feared she might never sing again.
Her ambition remains to become a pop star, and the Coaches responded positively to what they heard in the Blind Audition.
Richard Marx described Naccari as both a diva and a superstar, while Kate Miller-Heidke highlighted the theatrical qualities in her performance.
Ronan Keating went further, saying he had found himself “a proper pop star”.
That pitch proved enough, with Naccari joining Team Ronan.
There was another successful audition for Fox Stapelton, 18, from Bondi, NSW.
The songwriter performed Olivia Dean’s Man I Need, earning two chair turns before choosing Team Kate Miller-Heidke.
Richard Marx singled out Stapelton’s conversational approach, saying his style was something that could not be taught.
For Jess Kelly, however, the Blind Audition ended without a chair turn.
The 38-year-old Queensland singer arrived on The Voice carrying one of Australian music’s most recognisable family connections: he is the nephew of John Farnham.
Kelly performed Cold Chisel’s When The War Is Over after explaining he had grown up side of stage watching his uncle perform.
While acknowledging he would always have a connection to the Farnham name, Kelly said he hoped to establish a musical path of his own.
None of the four Coaches turned.
The performance nevertheless prompted debate, particularly from Richard Marx, who described the resemblance between Kelly’s voice and John Farnham’s as “uncanny”.
Marx questioned whether the Coaches were hearing Kelly himself or somebody mimicking the music legend.
While a zero-chair result would ordinarily mean the end of an artist’s time in the competition, this season contains another possibility — one the four main Coaches do not know about.
Tones And I is secretly watching the Blind Auditions as a fifth Coach from a hidden surveillance room.
The arrangement, described as a first for The Voice, means Melanie C, Ronan Keating, Kate Miller-Heidke and Richard Marx remain unaware that another Coach is monitoring the artists they do not select.
Tones And I has the ability to save contestants who receive no chair turns but are considered to have potential.
Those artists can enter her secret coaching program, where she mentors them behind the scenes before they are given a second chance later in the competition.
According to Seven, the mechanism can give another opportunity to performers whose audition may have been affected by nerves, an unsuitable song choice or simply not producing their best performance on the day.
Seven artists have been saved so far.
Red Roy was selected in Episode 1, followed by Jamie Koul in Episode 2, Lilita Keni in Episode 3 and Dicko in Episode 4.
Georgia Dabbous joined the group following Episode 5, with Cris J saved in Episode 6 and Mikayla Durrant becoming the seventh saved artist in Episode 7.
The secret arrangement leaves the four established Coaches continuing to assemble their teams through the Blind Auditions without knowing Tones And I is simultaneously building a group of artists behind the scenes.
For Yung Milla, there was no need for a second chance. Four chairs turned, Richard Marx was blocked and the Darwin rapper finished the night as the newest member of Team Melanie C.
The Voice Australia continues 7.30pm Monday and Tuesday on Seven and 7plus.
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