Former Britain’s Got Talent singer Hollie Steel has slammed the show suggesting it is fixed and she was robbed of the chance of winning the series when she was a contestant.
The now 23-year-old opera singer stunned the judging panel and viewers back in 2009 when she took to the stage aged just 10-years-old and belted out a rendition of Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom of the Opera.
Despite going down in BGT history as one of the most memorable contestants ever, the singer claims she was set up to fail by show bosses who dictated what she could and couldn’t sing.
Hollie has made her sensational claims that the entire show is fixed in a video that has gone viral on TikTok where she details what she claims happened when she appeared on the show all those years ago.
Casting her mind back to her audition, Hollie claims the song from Phantom of the Opera that millions of viewers saw her sing: “wasn't a song I'd ever heard of before”.
She claimed: "I wanted to sing Nessun Dorma [by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini], like a massive opera song, like BAM, I'm here."
She continued: "I knew I could sing it, I said I knew I was strong enough and they [producers] said no.
"They were like 'no you can't sing that' and the only reason why I think they said no - because I was definitely able to sing it - was that they didn't want me to win".
She also claimed her failure to win the show: "wasn't Britain's Got Talent's fault, they don't fix it, but the song choices are fixed".
Hollie herself made it to the live week of finals but crumbled on stage while singing Eidelweiss from The Sound of Music during the semi final episode.
And she ultimately lost the competition to Diversity – who triumphed that year – and saw Susan Boyle claim the silver prize.
Hollie has, nonetheless, managed to enjoy relative success away from the reality show stage – releasing her debut solo album in 2010.
She unleashed a festive album titled Hooray for Christmas in 2011 and she released a third album titled Children on the Titanic in 2012.
While her most recent single was titled Patched & Sewn which was released in 2016.
Hollie has also performed on stage, taking the role of Louisa von Trapp in Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version of The Sound of Music in 2011 – and she most recently performed on a Caribbean cruise ship in 2019.
Other contestants that took part in 2009’s iconic season of BGT included father-son duo Stavros Flatley, Michael Jackson superfan and singer Shaheen Jafargholi, and dancer Aidan Davies.
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