The sixth season of the Russian reality talent show The Voice Kids premiered on February 15, 2019 on Channel One. Dmitry Nagiev returned as the show's presenter. replaced Agata Muceniece as a co-presenter. Pelageya and Valery Meladze returned as coach, Svetlana Loboda (LOBODA) replaced Basta.
The end result of the final on April 26 was so decisive, that fans started questioning the results. Channel One TV tasked the cyber-security firm Group-IB to look for manipulations in the votes. A preliminary result confirmed vote manipulation. Channel One TV annulled the results of the final on May 16 and announced a new final show for May 24.
For the first time, the audience chose the Best Coach of the season. Pelageya won with a result of 56%.
Pelageya and Valery Meladze are joined by LOBODA, who replaced Basta, thus making it the first season to have two female coaches. Dmitry Nagiev is joined by , who replaced Agata Muceniece.
A new feature this season is The Best coach of the season (also in each episode).
The coaches performed "Venus" at the start of the show.
The Battles start on March 29, 2019. Contestants who win their battle will advance to the Sing-off rounds.
The Sing-offs start on March 29. Contestants who was saved by their coaches will advance to the Final.
Playoff results were voted on in real time. Nine artists sang live and six of them were eliminated by the end of the night. Three saved artists advanced to the Final.
Second Final Round results were voted on in real time. Top 3 artists sang live and Mikella Abramova won the competition. However, the results have been cancelled due to external manipulation of votes. There was no winner to this season because of the manipulation. BBC reports: "Clearly this is just a TV show. But to some it reflects a wider, unpleasant reality: using money and status to sway a vote. People have shrugged that off for years in politics. But the idea that dirty practices tainted a children's talent contest has angered them.âÂÂ
While many fans stated that Mikella was a decent performer, the scale of her victory was distinctly fishy, especially with some believing her vocals to be shaky. Notably, her pop-star mum, Alsou, had called openly for support: she has more than two million Instagram followers. Additionally, reports of factory workers being paid to vote added to the sense of scandal.
Valery Meladze stated the need to review the voting results. admitted that the result of the superfinal was unexpected for the presenters and the management of Channel One: "I can guarantee that this was not bought by Channel One. Channel One has absolutely nothing to do with this. It was a big surprise for everyone.". Dmitry Nagiev said: "If it turns out that there were at least some machinations, I am in favor of canceling the results of the final and making an honest final".. Later, Nagiyev announced his readiness to leave the show if the rules of television voting do not change.
LOBODA's producer Natella Krapivina said that the "story" of the Voice is "over", and the singer herself posted photos of two other members of her team on Instagram, accompanying the pictures with a heart emoji.
In the late afternoon of April 27, 2019, news agencies posted a comment by Konstantin Ernst, in which the CEO confirmed that the channel's management had encountered such a situation for the first time in the entire history of the project and an investigation would be conducted. The first step was the publication of the voting protocol on the website of Channel One.
On April 28, 2019, it became known that Alla Pugacheva met with the finalists of the competition Erzhan Maxim, Nino Chesner, Robert Bagratyan and Anastasiya Ivanova, who presented them with her own awards, diplomas and cash prizes. LOBODA was also present at the meeting and distributed her prizes to the children.
On May 16, 2019, Channel One announced the cancellation of the result of the sixth season finale after checking the interim voting results. Earlier, Group-IB reported that a "fraud" of votes was recorded during the voting: "The interim results of the audit confirm that the voting was influenced by an external influence that influenced the outcome of the show. Group-IB will provide the final report by the end of May, but based on the interim results, Channel One decides to cancel the result of the finale of the sixth season of The Voice Kids. It is important to emphasize that the purpose of the audit was to confirm or deny the fact of artificial influence on the vote, and not to bring charges against anyone. Channel One will also take measures to improve and further protect the voting mechanism and ensure that what happened does not happen again
While the show was shown live, the coaches were not present. Each had recorded a greeting to their team. Artists performed the following songs, however there was no voting.
After the performances The CEO of Channel One Russia, Konstantin Ernst came on stage and declared all final participants as winner. Each participant including Mikella Abramova was handed a trophy and will receive the winning prize of â½1 mln.