Donel Mangena stuns The Voice UK judges with audition song remix
Donel Mangena, 16, from Southampton England stunned judges on The Voice UK with his remix of ‘Cold Water’ by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber during his blind audition.
The teen included a verse in his home language in his cover of the popular song.
All four judges turned for Donel and fought to bring him onto their team but it was ultimately Will.i.am who convinced the contestant to choose him as his coach.
“It took like three words. I just hit it [red button] as you hit my heart… I lot of these coaches are gonna promise you a lot of things for this show and this show only and this is the truth, if you pick me bro you got me for however long you want me in your life,” said the former Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am.
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Born in the UK, Mangena lived with his grandmother Nita for a few years in Zimbabwe. “Growing up, my parents wanted me to explore the culture of Zimbabwe, so I moved to Zimbabwe for a couple of years and stayed with my grandma. I have a huge gigantic soft spot for her.”
Donel had the support of his mom, dad, aunt, little brother and grandmother who was fortunately visiting from Zimbabwe during the audition.
The entire family ran onto the stage after Donel’s audition but it was his grandmother Nita who almost stole the show with her celebratory dance.
In an interview with Lorraine Kelly on ITV, Donel said that his dad inspires him to sing and even turned the shed in the back yard into a studio for him to write and make music.
“I want to show the world that there’s more to music, I wanna give a new impact. I want to [re]present the United Kingdom as an artist and present Zimbabwe as well to the whole world because… there’s not much people like this, doing this. I want to show everyone the different side to music, I want to be different.”
The college student battled Rhianna Abrey on Saturday with their rendition of The Scripts ‘Rain’ where the teen added some of his Zulu to take the win.
“That was amazing, it was unreal. It wanna buy that CD now,” said judge Olly Murs.
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When asked about girls the teen gave a mature response which showed his determination to break into the music business.
“I’m just focussing on music, I know girls can be a problem, I know that, I do like the girls, I’m not gonna be distracted. I’m gonna concentrate on music, to bring out the best in me for the next however many years. I want to work so hard and show the world what I can do.”