Keeping their promise to fans, M-Net and Mzansi Magic released the voting statistics for this year's Top 10 Idols SA shows today, which indicates how the voting public rated Khaya as the show's top performer for 10 weeks in a row.

M-Net and Mzansi Magic also confirmed that Khaya received the most votes during the Top 18 phase where he competed against other strong male contenders for a place in the Top 10. For the first time in the history of the competition, voters had 100% voting power during the Top 18 phase. In Idols Season 7, for example, the voting public determined five of the Top 10 contestants, while the judges added the remaining five.

To provide even more transparency to the early stages of the competition, M-Net and Mzansi Magic also invited listeners from radio stations across the country to the Theatre Phase at Sun City, where their applause for each contestant’s performance guided the judges in selecting the Top 18 contestants.
 
As opposed to the 8 053 612 votes received for Idols Season 6 and the 8 411 8869 for Idols Season 7, this year's total number of votes tallied a whopping 9 005 342. For the final, Season 6 and Season 7 drew 2 399 002 votes and 1 905 532 votes respectively in comparison with this year's 2 987 087.

M-Net's Corporate Communications Manager, Lani Lombard, says the overwhelming viewer interaction is a testament to the popularity of the brand and quality of this year's Top 10. "Our main mission with each season of Idols is to produce a fire-cracker television series for the enjoyment of our diverse audiences and to provide a launchpad for successful careers in the highly competitive music industry. With all this support, Khaya is bound to become a star player on the South African music scene. We are also immensely proud of runner-up Melissa, who showed how important hard work and commitment is in the entertainment world, and trust that we will hear much more from this fantastic group of Idols."

The results which appear below are based on votes received from the public via MXit, SMS, and the Idols website and mobi-site.

To avoid unfair syndicated voting, votes were limited to 100 per voting period on Mxit and via SMS and to one per hour on the Idols website and mobi-site. Each week, the votes were verified by auditing firm Deloitte.

The statistics for the competition from the Idols Top 18 phase through to the Idols Final, appear below with each contestant’s number of votes represented by a percentage of the total.

 
Top 18 - Boys 
01 - Matt           3.24%
02 - Dumi          4.91%
03 - Obakeng     6.29%
04 - Jean           4.88%
05 - Simphiwe  14.40%
06 - Dominic      5.02%
07 - Monde        8.47%
08 - Khaya       49.36%
09 - Treasure     3.41%
Total                  100%
    
    
Top 18 - Girls
10 - Sihle          6.63%
11 - Tsidi          14.69%
12 - Maryke       7.99%
13 - Thabz         6.85%
14 - Chloe        11.23%
15 - Shekhinah 25.78%
16 - Nosipho    10.36%
17 - Melissa     11.75%
18 - Candy        4.70%
Total              100.00%
    
    
Top 10
01 - Nosipho      3.86%
02 - Obakeng     3.00%
03 - Monde        3.89%
04 - Chloe          5.80%
05 - Simphiwe    9.01%
06 - Dominic      3.40%
07 - Melissa       3.29%
08 - Khaya       33.09%
09 - Shekhinah   9.64%
10 - Tshidi         25.01%
Total               100.00%
    
Top 9    
01 - Nosipho       3.77%
03 - Monde         6.95%
04 - Chloe           5.03%
05 - Simphiwe    11.46%
06 - Dominic        5.63%
07 - Melissa        8.80%
08 - Khaya         29.73%
09 - Shekhinah   12.56%
10 - Tshidi          16.06%
Total                100.00%
    
    
Top 8
03 - Monde         9.84%
04 - Chloe           5.66%
05 - Simphiwe    11.15%
06 - Dominic        5.67%
07 - Melissa       10.13%
08 - Khaya          31.91%
09 - Shekhinah    13.65%
10 - Tshidi           11.98%
Total                 100.00%
    
    
Top 7
03 - Monde         12.28%
05 - Simphiwe     11.51%
06 - Dominic         6.57%
07 - Melissa         9.67%
08 - Khaya         33.12%
09 - Shekhinah    14.94%
10 - Tshidi           11.91%
Total                 100.00%
    
    
Top 6
03 - Monde         12.07%
05 - Simphiwe     14.48%
07 - Melissa        13.75%
08 - Khaya          36.58%
09 - Shekhinah    10.98%
10 - Tshidi           12.15%
Total                 100.00%
    
    
Top 5
03 - Monde         14.41%
05 - Simphiwe    13.66%
07 - Melissa       14.95%
08 - Khaya         40.41%
10 - Tshidi          16.57%
Total                100.00%
    
    
Top 4
03 - Monde        19.20%
07 - Melissa       19.57%
08 - Khaya         45.03%
10 - Tshidi          16.20%
Total                100.00%
    
    
Top 3
03 - Monde       20.71%
07 - Melissa     22.09%
08 - Khaya       57.21%
Total              100.00%
    
    
Top 2
07 - Melissa      19.80%
08 - Khaya        80.20%
Total               100.00%