Johannesburg - After a gruelling 10-months, 26-year-old Musa Sukwene from Midrand, Johannesburg was announced as the winner of Idols SA Season 9.

The finalists of the competition, Musa Sukwene and Brenden Ledwaba, received a record number of votes and were separated by only a few votes.

Musa Sukwene’s legions of fans chanted his name and in some instances booed Brenden Ledwaba when his image appeared on the screen on the stage.

About two million votes were cast in what was described as a closely contested duel in the history of the show. Just a thousand votes separated the winner from the runner-up, City Press's Lesley Mofokeng reports.

After being announced as the winner, Musa said: "I'm beyond overwhelmed, I'm speechless right now."

Early favourite Brenden Ledwaba just missed out on a chance to be the next Idol.

Congratulatory messages for Musa started flooding in immediately after he was announced as the winner.

ProVerb also announced the audition dates for Season 10 taking place across the country in February 2014.

Click here to see Musa's final performance.

#TeamMusa and #IdolsSA are the top trending hashtags on Twitter.

News24