The first person to win The Voice has died at 43. The show that made him spent four years off air
Ben Saunders is being written up in America this week as the first person ever to win The Voice, which is true and still slightly misleading. He won the Dutch original in January 2011, months before NBC put its version on the air, and he was found dead in a lake near Arnhem on Tuesday at 43.
Ben Saunders was found dead on Tuesday afternoon in the Rijkerswoerdse Plassen, a recreational lake in Elst on the southern edge of Arnhem. He had been reported missing earlier the same day, and his body was identified by his tattoos. He was 43. Dutch police told NL Times there was no crime involved.
His brother Dean announced the death on Instagram: "My dear little brother died today. I have never felt such pain as I feel now. What a dreadful day for us all."
Most American obituaries this week are calling Saunders the first winner of The Voice, and that is exactly right — just not the show most US readers picture. He won The Voice of Holland, the original, in January 2011. NBC's version had not aired a single episode yet.
What he actually won
John de Mol's format premiered on RTL 4 on September 17, 2010 — almost exactly 16 years ago. Saunders auditioned with Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody", won the first season outright, and released "Kill for a Broken Heart", which went Dutch Top 40. His debut album, You Thought You Knew Me By Now, went to number one.
By the time Javier Colon won NBC's first season that June, the chairs, the blind auditions and the four-coach structure were already a proven Dutch invention being licensed around the world. Saunders was the first person anywhere to sit through that turn and hear it come.
London-born, raised in Hoorn, settled in Arnhem where he ran a tattoo parlour. He was the template the franchise has been repeating for sixteen years.
What he did afterwards was mostly stay home. He kept recording in the Netherlands, appeared on Dutch television, and did not chase the international career the format's later winners were sold on.
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The show he won went dark for four years
- January 7, 2022 — season 12 premieres on RTL 4.
- Two weeks later — the show is pulled off air after allegations of sexual misconduct against its bandleader and two coaches.
- January 2022 — de Mol is publicly criticised for how he framed the scandal in a televised response.
- January 16, 2026 — season 13 premieres, the first in four years, with new coaches, new hosts and new on-set rules.
That is the odd shape of the news. The format Saunders won is now in dozens of countries and is one of the most licensed television ideas ever made. The specific show he won had been off Dutch screens longer than it took him to go from unknown to number one, and has been back for barely eight months.
He won it before America had it, and he outlived the version of the show that made him.
A cause of death has not been released. Police have said only what they said on Tuesday: no crime, no suspects, nothing further for now.
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