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Alfie Arcuri single off to Cruel start

Ballads singer from The Voice has a dubious start on iTunes after being lumbered with an up tempo single.

Who on earth decided Alfie Arcuri should be releasing an up-tempo single, ‘Cruel’, as his first single?

That was my immediate thought when he showcased his track in The Voice grand final on Sunday, after viewers voted him through on the back of Sam Smith-style ballads for much of the season.

Today Noise11 reports “‘Cruel’ got off to a disastrous start on Monday hovering around the low 30s on Australia’s iTunes chart but grabbed slightly better interest on Tuesday rising to 24 on iTunes before tumbling back down to 36 today” (NB: currently #20).

“The iTunes positions indicate that by the time the ARIA chart rolls around on Sunday night, ‘Cruel’ will be lucky to crack the bottom end of the Top 40 and will most likely struggle to sell more than 1000 units.”

Arcuri, who is to record an album for release at the end of the month, is a fine vocalist, who admits to being an R&B fan. But Universal should have arguably let him step into the spotlight with a ballad. This doesn’t bode too well for The Voice to produce its first star, but fingers crossed.

Previous winners have all peaked their debut singles with:

Karise Eden ‘You Won’t Let Me’: 5 (2012)
Harrison Craig ‘More Than A Dream’: 3. (2013)
Anja Nissen ‘I’m So Excited’: 42 (2014)
Ellie Drennan’s ‘Ghost’: 25 (2015)

Meanwhile coach Delta Goodrem has the #1 ARIA album with “Wings of the Wild” while guest coaches The Veronicas have the #1 single with “In My Blood.”

9 Responses

  1. Do people still really think this show is about the contestants rather than the judges?! The fact that the judges single far out ranks the winners single should tell you everything.

  2. If the X Factor truncates its season this year as they are indicating, i reckon the winner will befall the same fate as the recent Voice winners and a return to relative obscurity soon after. My argument, even though i enjoy The Voice, is that it moves too fast through the finals, not allowing viewers time to really connect with the contestants as the formats for Idol and X Factor do. Commenter aesthetic here is correct: the profiles of the coaches are the real winners here. Karise Eden was a genuine star. An amazing voice and story. To a lesser degree so was Harrison Craig. The speed with which The Voice demolishes its singers through those rounds is the reason they are not followed through. Cyrus from X Factor had plenty of time to grow and firm up as the favourite. Another factor? Reality pop star burn out?

    1. Yes. That was a problem I always ended up having with Australia’s Got Talent. So much time dedicated to the initial auditions which in turn means you only get to see the winner perform about 4 or 5 times throughout the competition so you don’t engage as much as you do with a X Factor winner for example

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