NZGT's 2013 Winner: Congratulations Renee Maurice!

NZGT's 2013 Winner: Congratulations Renee Maurice!

SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER 2013 ON TV ONE

Tonight Renee Maurice, a 22-year-old singer from Wellington, was named the 2013 winner of New Zealand's Got Talent.

Thousands of people turned up to open auditions around the country earlier this year. Then nearly 400 acts performed for the NZGT judges. Just 30 were selected to compete in the Semi Finals, and after last week’s Grand Final, New Zealand voted in huge numbers to select just one winner from 13 finalists.

Now Renee, a singing tutor for StarJam, has seen her hard work pay off. Singing the challenging Jennifer Holliday torch song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”, she was very decisively voted into the top spot by viewers. Renee knew she had to choose a song that would showcase her impressive vocal range, and she had the astonished audience and judges in the theatre up on their feet before the song had even finished. Renee is taking home the Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Toyota RAV4.

“When Tamati read my name out I was just stunned, as well as honoured and grateful that people had actually taken the time to vote for me. My goal with the prize is to help my parents first, as this gives us the opportunity as a family to have no financial burdens.  I can continue to do what I love without worrying about money. Now that I have this platform I want to perform live as much as possible and do larger gigs - I’ll just soak up as much as I can get!” – Renee Maurice

In 3rd place tonight was Jenny Mitchell, a 14-year-old singer and guitarist from Gore, who won the audience over with her original country songs and strong voice. Having had the whole country watch her perform with a maturity and professionalism beyond her years, Jenny will continue pursuing a music career.

Dancing duo Silhouette (Kate and Lei’ataua Limuloa, from Christchurch) took 2nd place in the competition, having won people’s hearts with their love story, as well as impressing everyone with their incredible skill and creativity. Now they have introduced their style of ‘adagio’ dance, they plan on continuing to choreograph for themselves and others, and hope to perform for audiences all over the country.

The top three, Renee, Silhouette, and Jenny, also performed together tonight with the Emeli Sandesong “Next To Me”, and the season as a whole was celebrated by bringing back some audience favourites from the auditions and semis to perform again. Special guests performers also included two judges, with Cris Judd taking the stage with a solo dance, something viewers had been waiting to see since the season began. Jason Kerrison performed twice, once with his band The Babysitter’s Circus and their new single “Giving Love”; and again with the Split Enz classic “Poor Boy” alongside ENZO and Eddie Rayner.

Judges Rachel Hunter, Jason Kerrison and Cris Judd were all delighted with the results of the public voting, and couldn’t be happier with the top three New Zealand selected.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues after the results were revealed, Jason says; “All three had flawless performances in the Grand Final. What‘s really cool is that the public is so discerning - the final three truly did deserve to be there. I wasn’t surprised that Renee won at all, from the outset she was clearly in the running. When the results were announced she was overwhelmed, she’s such a sweet girl.  I think she is going to make even more of a difference than she already has in her community. She has overcome major obstacles in life, and now with $100,000 and a Toyota RAV4, she’s got the resources. I’m ecstatic for her.”

NZGT partner Toyota New Zealand is also delighted to see Renee Maurice emerge as the NZGT winner. General Manager of Marketing Neeraj Lala says; “Renee blew the roof off with every song. She has more than sheer talent – her work at StarJam as a singing tutor for young people with special abilities shows she has real heart. There could be no more fitting winner for Toyota; Renee shows, if you can dream it, you can do it.”

To view tonight’s New Zealand's Got Talent performances again, visit: http://tvnz.co.nz/nzgt

ENDS

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