An 11-year-old guitarist dazzled on Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday night and won through to the show’s live semi-finals.
Clad in a backwards baseball cap and vest, young Olly Pearson from Wrexham came on for his audition carrying a guitar his grandad bought for him. When asked by the judges what his ambition was he cooly answered: “to become the best guitarist in the world.”
Olly duly lit up the show, playing a medley of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell - complete with Angus-style duckwalking - Jump by Van Halen and Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. And he nailed Brian May’s intricate solo on the latter like a seasoned pro.
The judges were suitably impressed. Amanda Holden pushed the golden buzzer, meaning that Olly goes straight through to the semis, and the others – rapper KSI, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell - all sang his praises. Indeed the notoriously hard-to-please Cowell said: “You already have your own distinct sound, which normally people take decades (to find). You’re that good! That was brilliant brilliant brilliant. Good for you.”
Olly has been playing since he was 7, when his grandfather started teaching him during the Covid lockdowns. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, grandad Lee said: “I always had his guitar around the house and then Olly decided he wanted to play. We had an awful lot of fun doing it. The talent was in there.”
The love of rock music has always been there according to his dad, Simon: “I remember him dancing to Girls, Girls, Girls by Mötley Crüe when we were at soft play when he was around two or three.”
Young Olly already has a plan for his semi-final appearance: “It’s gonna be louder. Better tunes, better moves, better jumps,” he said. Winning the overall competition and thus performing at Royal Variety Performance "would be even bigger than a dream, that would be so cool!" And he vowed that in the unlikely event that he does win, he’ll treat grandad with his £250,000 prize money - "I'd buy him his dream guitar, a Fender Starcaster."
As you can see in the above clip, the lad certainly has the chops. And even if he doesn’t win BGT this year, we're sure Olly has a great future ahead of him.
