The Voice UK lack Pride in their winners

Leanne Mitchell (Image: leannemitchell.co.uk)

The other day, I purchased something unique. When I say "unique", one really means that this product isn't owned by many people. I suppose you can call it a "limited edition" - I mean, around 2,000 people are in possession of this in the UK, whether it is a physical or a downloaded copy - and it cost me a mere £9.61 from an online retailer. What am I talking about? Of course I'm talking about the new Leanne Mitchell album.

Wait, what? You're telling me "who's Leanne Mitchell"? You know, the one who won the first series of The Voice UK. She won that show last spring, in front of seven million people in the British Isles. For those asking how she is, she has been finding life after winning this competition over twelve months ago a little challenging. For starters, her debut single, the cover of Whitney Houston's "Run to You" peaked at number 45 in the music charts. Meanwhile, the year passed by when the public were kept in the dark over the release date of this first album.

You know me, I like to be kept updated with the news constantly, however I only found out Ms Mitchell's album release date two days before 27th May, its release date. At the time, it was only Leanne Mitchell who urged her Twitter followers to pre-order the album - and as she "only" has 30,000+ followers on the social media site, not many would see her announcements first-hand, unless you followed her, or unless she was trending - she wasn't.

On the release date, the 27th May, I was hoping to see a bit more publicity surrounding Leanne Mitchell's album. In the morning, I received an email from HMV reminding me of the new releases, which included the singer/songwriter's CD - good start, I thought. Ms Mitchell then appeared on BBC Breakfast, which must have been seen by around a million viewers - that must have bumped up her album sales - another promising piece of publicity. This was very shortly followed by her appearance on The Wright Show, a Channel Five programme watched by not so many people. Even though appearing on that show may not have targeted the music downloader, the people that really matter on paper, the word was still being spread that this album is available to the general public.

(l-r) Tom Jones, Leanne Mitchell, Holly Willoughby (Image: Digital Spy)

However, after that mad Monday morning rush, that was it then. Nobody heard about the album until the Sunday when it was announced the album made only 895 sales which, because of this statistic, Leanne Mitchell's debut album charted 134 in the charts. Disheartened yet defiant, the singer is still tweeting away about her album - yet she seems to be the only one promoting this CD, apart from the tabloids which are now calling the album a "flop" and have started rumours that her record label is to dump her.

There isn't a valid reason to why Leanne Mitchell's album hasn't performed well in the charts. Danny O'Donoghue and Will.I.Am, both judges and singing coaches on The Voice UK, blame the singer's work ethic. There were even rumours spreading that her Voice mentor Sir Tom Jones hadn't even listened to the album yet, although this allegation was quickly denied. Other singing coach Jessie J hasn't publicly commented on this album or about Leanne Mitchell. She is probably one of millions that doesn't know Ms Mitchell has released an album - although that may be a small exaggeration.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if millions of Brits haven't heard about the album's release. Leanne Mitchell only has just over 30,000 followers on Twitter and less than 10,000 likes on Facebook. To me, this isn't down to her popularity, or lack of it - it is down to the atrocious PR from the BBC, The Voice UK and her record label, Decca Records.

I do not blame Leanne Mitchell's work ethic. For those who watched BBC Breakfast on the 27th May, she featured on it for five minutes promoting her album and said she wrote most of the songs in the album, stating she didn't want her album to be cluttered by covers. There is her rendition of Screamin' Jay Hawkins's "I Put a Spell on You" in the CD but the vast majority of the album is original material. There is so much she can do regarding work ethic - she turned up, wrote some music, recorded it and that's a wrap, surely? Oh yes, of course publicity is the key to a successful album. Silly me.

Going back to the topic of publicity - after her 134th position in the music charts, Leanne Mitchell did make another TV appearance. She featured in a 90-second slot in the quarter final of this year's The Voice UK, singing a verse and chorus of "Pride". There was no album plug or hype about her appearance. "Here's Leanne Mitchell", co-presenter Holly Willoughby announces to a bewildered crowd. It was an opportunity wasted.

The only praise I can give to the BBC is that Radio Two had "Pride" as their "A-List" playlist, meaning it is a song they recommend people to listen and download. It is no longer on the playlist. However, tragically, Radio Two doesn't primarily target those who download music and affect the charts - Radio One is. DJ of this station and co-presenter of The Voice UK, Reggie Yates has kept quiet over the album, same applies to Holly Willoughby, who presents ITV's popular show This Morning - a show Leanne Mitchell should have gone to promote her CD rather than the Wright Show.

The final of this year's The Voice UK concluded last Saturday and while Leah McFall, like Bo Bruce last year, was strong favourite to win the show, underdog Andrea Begley from "Team Danny" was triumphant. Ms McFall's has already clinched a place in the top ten of the music charts with her performance of "I Will Survive" which shows that The Voice PR has improved over the past twelve months with its precious partnership with iTunes. Andrea Begley hasn't had success to that scale yet but will her winning single "Angel" do better in the charts than Leanne Mitchell's "Run to You"? If Ms Begley's debut album "flopped", will Danny blame her work ethic?

Andrea Begley (Image: tellymix)

Publicity is so important in the music industry - it is the hidden ingredient towards chart success. The X-Factor for example has an excellent PR team. To them, their first winner, Steve Brookstein was a complete failure, even if his winning single "Against all Odds" reached number one and debut album was purchased 105,000 times by the Great British public. Yes, he was dropped by the record label soon afterwards but his single and album was widely hyped - without having to rely on social media. ITV know how to champion an X-Factor winner. For example, I recall watching a few of these finals and the public is shown live footage from a CD-making factory and as soon as the winner is announced, in the big screen behind the drama on-stage, we see stacks of printed CDs. This excites people and most importantly, it excites the winner.

In addition, The Xtra Factor, the ITV2 sister-show of The X-Factor, continues the hype while at the end of the series, we are reminded of the winner's emotional journey with these shows being on repeat. ITV's advertising makes The X-Factor look exciting and the show itself boasts the glitz The Voice should crave.

The Voice format is great but its advertising lacks that enthusiasm to attract the viewers. I'm surprised the BBC hasn't learnt from Strictly Come Dancing's success - every weekday on BBC2, when Strictly is on, we have "Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two". Why couldn't the Voice have that? They had a big enough budget.

The X-Factor also emphasise that the winning single is to be released in-time for Christmas - the time of year when people buy iPods for their loved ones for the festive period. The Voice needs to capitalise on its summer winner's single release. Summer is the time of year where people play upbeat, ice-cream licking songs. Leanne Mitchell's "Run to You" is a ballad - a genre which rarely goes down well with the current crop of eccentric teenagers who prefer to download music performed by young lads who prance around, R'n'B stars and indie/rock groups. I love ballads - however, a lot of the music I like rarely reaches the top 40.

I am glad The Voice UK is to commission a third series however, they need to treat their winners better. It isn't too late for Leanne Mitchell to boost her album sales, however in today's world she isn't going to reach the top 100 in the album charts unless she receives support from the masses. The Voice UK's Facebook and Twitter accounts should have promoted the album but they didn't. They didn't promote other series one finalists Bo Bruce's or James Tyler's albums either, and they were released fairly recently. Leanne Mitchell knew that being the first winner of The Voice UK wasn't going to be an easy ride. One just prays that Andrea Begley doesn't have the same fate. They haven't plugged Andrea's single yet so I'm guessing she won't do well in the charts come this Sunday.

I think my "problem" with Leanne Mitchell is that she appears to be too nice. In the music industry, you need to show your ruthlessness and persistence. If she showed more of that, I think the record label might have believed in the album a bit more. I have her debut album with Pride, it is a terrific album with some excellent songs. I just hope she moves on from that useless record label and go to one which genuinely believes in her talent, not neglect them.

Leanne Mitchell's debut album "Leanne Mitchell" is available in your local HMV, or alternatively - purchase the album from Amazon or Play.com. Better still - download it from your iTunes.