Should Andrea Begley have won The Voice? Six key questions

ANDREA BEGLEY, a civil servant from Northern Ireland, was the surprise winner of the BBC talent show The Voice last night. The 27-year-old, who is partially-blind, was lost for words after beating fellow finalists Matt Henry, Mike Ward, and bookies' favourite Leah McFall, with renditions of My Immortal by Evanesence, The Script's Hall of Fame and Sarah Mclachlan's Angel. Here are six things you may not know about The Voice's new superstar:

She only has 10 per cent vision: Begley started losing her sight when she was only six years old as the result of glaucoma and has only 10 per cent vision left, The Independent reports. As a result, she had to memorise the lyrics to the songs she performed on The Voice because she couldn't read them off the monitor. Begley said she hoped her victory would inspire other partially-sighted performers, and joked in the Daily Record that she intends to buy a car with her winnings, adding: "Even £1million won't buy a blind person a licence".

Speaking of winnings, what did she win? The Daily Mirror reports that Begley could earn as much as £1m in the next year. The sum would be made up of her prize - a £500,000 recording contract with Universal – as well as £100,000 earnings from the The Voice concert tour and other promotional deals.

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Has Begley been a hit with viewers? Yes and no. The Voice's ratings plummeted to 5.7 million this month – a new low for the series. However, The Guardian reports that yesterday's finale attracted an average of 7.2 million viewers, an improvement on the 7.1 million who tuned in for last year's finale.

What about the show's favourite, Leah McFall? The 23-year-old Irish singer, dubbed 'Little Miss Fantastic' by her mentor Will.i.am, was the odds-on favourite to win last night. She'd already bagged a top ten hit with her version of the disco anthem I Will Survive and had been flown to France on Will.i.am's private jet prior to the finale, The Sun reports. Will.i.am has big plans for his protégé and will fly her to New York to work on her debut album.

What did Will.i.am make of Begley's win? He wasn't happy. The Black Eyed Peas rapper vented his frustration on Twitter, calling Begley's win 'unexplainable'. "You should feel the audience's vibration in the room tonight after the public's vote … it's unexplainable … so sad … perplexed", he tweeted. The rapper later backtracked, saying: "Andrea is amazing...#dontGETmeWRONG...but we know who has the incredible #voice".

What's next for Begley? Hopefully, the newest Voice winner will sell rather more albums than last year's victor, Leanne Mitchell, who shifted fewer than 1000 units. Her coach, Danny O'Donoghue, said the show had learned from last year's failure and would make sure Begley's album was available well before Christmas.