Avon Voices

Avon Voices was a global online talent search for women and songwriting contest for men and women that took place across 62 countries and 37 languages, from December 2010 through November 2011.

WWW Official Site

Process

There were over 10,000 submissions. 178 singers were flown around the world for 20 live and staged shows. Avon Voices culminated in the selection of two singing winners and two winning songwriting songs on November 2, 2011.

Judges

The international panel of artists judges included:

Winners

The two singing winners, Selena Gittens and Evelina Anusauskaite, were announced at the annual Avon Foundation for Women Gala on November 2, 2011 in New York City. The event and announcement were streamed live via .
The grand-prize-winning songwriting songs, "Step Up" and "We All Fall Down" were premiered at the Avon Foundation Gala, as well as a new original Avon Voices Anthem, written by Diane Warren, entitled "Be What You Believe."

Notability

Avon Voices is believed to be the largest and most expansive global online singing competition ever held. 178 women were flown over 1,000,000 miles to 1 of 6 major world cities over the course of the competition. Over 2,500,000 votes were cast online throughout the duration of the program. The Avon Voices website, the first ever website to simultaneously push in 37 languages, was visited by fans in over 213 countries and territories.

Controversy

On November 3, 2011, Avon issued a formal press release regarding the selection of the winners. The press release stated that "as part of the winnings, Selena and Evelina will record a fully produced album that will be sold through Avon distribution channels in select markets and a portion of the proceeds from the anthem sale in 2012 will go to the Avon Foundation for Women." At present, the album has yet to be distributed or sold.