Local acts go into battle on Sunday's Voice

Two local acts- Matheus Soares and Carl Gillic- will be among those battling it out on RTE’s Voice of Ireland on Sunday evening.
Close to 100 acts have graced the stage at the Helix hoping their audition will be good enough to impress the coaches. After seven blind auditions, the four coaches have 14 singers each on their teams but it’s time to cut those teams in half.
To prepare for the Battles, the coaches and their teams set off to Castle Bellingham in County Louth to spend two days rehearsing and getting to grips with the songs their coaches have chosen for them.
Over the next four weeks the coaches will pit team mates against each other. Then comes the difficult and unenviable task of deciding who to send home and who to put through to the live shows.
Two local acts will face their battles on Sunday evening’s show.
The first battle is on Team Rachel. Matheus Soares (21) from Navan will be battling against Stephanie Anketell (26) from Clare.
Rachel has put these two together because she feels they are two of the strongest vocalists on her team singing Sam Smith’s The Writings On The Wall from last year’s James Bond.
Matheus said: “When I first heard Stephanie’s voice I wanted to go home!”.
The final pairing on Sunday’s show will be for Team Kian with Londoner Nick McDonald (41) facing Kells man Carl Gillic (25) for a place in the live shows.
In the blind auditions all four coaches turned for Nick, so Carl will really have to shine to make it through.
Kian has given them the task of singing Foofighters The Pretender which neither of the artists are overjoyed by, so it’ll be a tough task- how will they get on?