The Voice winner Ben Saunders dies: First-ever winner of reality TV singing competition passes away aged 43
The champion of the inaugural season of the hit TV singing competition was tragically found dead in a lake.
Tributes have poured in following the death of Ben Saunders, the man who won the first-ever series of The Voice in 2011.
The singer took out the series in its first year when it was aired in The Netherlands.
The Sun reported that his brother confirmed Saunders’ death in a social media post on Tuesday in the wake of a missing persons search.
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The father-of-three was initially reported missing on Tuesday morning just hours before his body was found in a recreational lake known as the Rijkerswoerdse Plassen at 1.20pm, local time.
A search involving dog squads, police and police helicopters was launched after a bystander reported seeing a man walk into the waterway but failed to re-emerge afterwards.
Saunders was engaged to his partner Janita. While he is yet to be formally identified by police, it is believed his many distinctive tattoos had ruled out the possibility that the body was anyone else’s.
His brother Dean confirmed the devastating news in the first of many online tributes to the singer.
“My dear little brother died today. I have never felt pain like I feel now,” his post read.
“What a terrible day for all of us. We have to learn to live with this and I hope it is treated with respect.
“Ben had a beautiful family and relatives who love him dearly.
“I will always do so too. Ben is in my heart and he will stay there forever.”
Born in London, Saunders moved with his UK parents to the Netherlands as a child, eventually settling in the town of Arnhem, where he ran a tattoo parlour.
He stunned the judges on the first-ever season of The Voice in 2010 — then known by its original title The Voice of The Netherlands — with a stirring audition in which he belted out Use Somebody, the Kings of Leon hit.
His breakthrough came in 2011 when he won The Voice after dazzling judges with his rendition of the Kings of Leon song Use Somebody in his audition.
His winning song in the reality show, Kill for a Broken Heart, reached No. 4 in the Dutch Top 40, while his first solo album, You Thought You Knew Me By Now, topped the charts on its release in the same year that he won the televised competition.
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