This means that 24-year Karabo Mogane from Mbombela in Mpumalanga and 23-year-old Mmatema Moremi from Zebiedela in Limpopo will fight it out become South Africa’s next Idol.

Even though he had to say goodbye to the competition, Varrie received more votes than last year’s Top 3 combined.

The former financial advisor who had been the sole provider for his family at the time of the auditions, has quietly run his own race throughout his Idols SA Top 10 experience. In the first Spectacular on Sunday, 20 September he had all four of the judges dancing in their seats with his spirited performance of Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror. Unathi Msengana pointed out that even the Idols SA band – which comprises some of the best musicians working in the country today – loved his performance.

“You have a great voice, very sincere and honest,” Gareth Cliff told Varrie after his performance of the John Legend ballad This Time in the Top 9 Spectacular, and Somizi Mhlongo was beside himself after Varrie’s interpretation of Simply Red’s 1989 ballad, If You Don’t Know Me By Now, in the Eighties-themed Top 8 Spectacular. “You speak to the heart and into the soul,” he raved.

In the Top 7 Showstopper Spectacular on Sunday, 11 October, Varrie brought some of the Chris Brown magic with Fine China, and Cliff loved it. “I thought it was inspired to do something old school,” he noted. And Mhlongo was blown away by Varrie’s twin performances of Radiohead’s High And Dry and One Republic’s Counting Stars in the “90’s vs Now” Top 6 Spectacular. “When Jesus says ‘yes’, no Randall can say ‘no’,” he cracked. “Hallelujah!”

In the Top 5 Spectacular at the end of October, Varrie performed Bruno Mars’ Billionaire and the Percy Sledge classic When a Man Loves a Woman and Mhlongo said that he could not fault him.

Varrie won himself a standing ovation with his emotional performance of the Etta James standard, I’d Rather Go Blind in the Top 4 show, which he followed up with Marvin Gaye Sexual Healing, but unfortunately all the judges agreed that he was maybe a bit too young for that particular song.

And he kicked off the Top 3 Spectacular on Sunday, 8 November performing Miguel’s hit, Adorn, and the Jackson Five’s I Want You Back. But unfortunately he forgot some lyrics in that performance, and Mhlongo as much as predicted that it would mean the end of his Idols SA journey.

Fans can hear Varrie perform the songs he would have sung on the Top 2 Spectacular live on Arye Kellman’s internet-streaming show on CliffCentral at 16:00 on Monday, 16 November.

The Top 2 contestants, Mmatema Moremi and Karabo Mogane will embark on the whirlwind Idols publicity tour this week. They will be in Durban on Tuesday, 17 November and in Cape Town on Wednesday, 18 November.

For more information, visit www.idolssa.tv. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.