Singer Alsou apologizes for daughter’s unfair victory in «The Voice Kids» competition

Russian singer Alsou (real name — Alsou Abramova) has apologized for her daughter Mikella’s victory in the show «The Voice Kids», which she admitted was obtained unfairly. The singer made this statement in an interview on Natalia Podolskaya’s YouTube channel. «I want to publicly apologize. We all love our children and want to help them in any way we can. It was wrong of me. So I want to apologize to Mikella and to everyone else, and say that what happened, happened», - said the singer. Alsou admitted that she «used her fame» but acknowledged that she «didn't think it through». «At that moment, you don’t think about anything, you’re just like any other mother, wanting to help your child. Just like other mothers on the show: some have 10 thousand followers, some have 50 [thousand], some have 100 [thousand]. And everyone calls their relatives, everyone tells them to vote», - Alsou added. She explained that she asked other celebrities to vote and encourage their fans to do the same. The artist called her daughter’s victory unfair to the other participants of the show, as «other parents didn’t have two million followers». Alsou had previously admitted to buying votes for her daughter. The finale of the «The Voice Kids» competition was broadcast live on April 26, 2019, by Channel One. The winner of the sixth season of the show, based on the audience vote, was Mikella Abramova, the ten-year-old daughter of singer Alsou and businessman Yan Abramov from Svetlana Loboda’s team. Abramova received the support of 56.5% of the voters. This high result, unusual for previous seasons, caused a wide public outcry. Subsequently, Channel One annulled the results. The decision was made after the company Group-IB, brought in to investigate, discovered automated SMS messaging in favor of participant number 07, under which Abramova performed. According to Group-IB's estimates, Abramova received over 38 thousand votes in this manner. The company estimated the cost of the vote manipulation at 2.28−3.04 million rubles.