When 14-year-old George Sampson first danced on the Britain’s Got Talent stage back in 2007, the star didn’t quite do enough to reach the semi-finals and was sent home to Manchester. That didn’t stop George though and determined to win the show, he returned to the stage the following year.
During series 2, little George successfully not only made it through to the semi finals - a now famous performance of Singin' in the Rain, complete with an on-stage rain machine, secured the dancer a place in the final. For a boy who essentially came from nothing, his world was about to change forever as he won the second series of BGT. But who exactly is George Sampson and where is he now?
Born in 1993 in Warrington, a young George had to busk to pay for dance lessons. Following his BGT win, The Mint Royale version of Singin' in the Rain (which has become the song George is renowned for) went straight to number 1 in the UK charts - and George was on his way to success.
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But George’s BGT win might not have happened at all. In 2008, he revealed that he suffered from a rare spine condition called Scheuermann’s disease - a curvature of the spine that has left him blind in one eye. Even though the disease could be seen as debilitating, George went on record to insist that there is "no way" he would give up dancing. Following the 2008 revelation, George said that doctors have said that he was medically allowed to continue dancing.
In 2008, he made his West-End stage debut in the hip-hop musical, Into the Hoods. Talking about his transition, he said: “This year is getting better and better - I love the music in Into the Hoods”. George would continue acting and later secure TV acting roles in Waterloo Road, Mount Pleasant and Emmerdale. To this day, George still acts and recently performed in an American version of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in which he played bully, Dean. George would go on to meet his girlfriend, Kazmin Borrer whilst working on the show.
Two years ago, George returned to the Britain’s Got Talent stage for The Champions edition of the show. A now much older George, unfortunately didn’t win the series and that accolade instead went to Twist and Pulse.
The dancer and actor has previously talked at length about his battle with hair loss and has since had a hair transplant. In an interview with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langford, he told them that he felt the transplant had "saved his career". He told the pair that his hair loss was one of the reasons that he’d shied away from the spotlight for a number of years.
Aside from dancing, George is also known to love free-running and chatting to the Loose Women a few years ago, he revealed that he’d actually caught a criminal when doing the sport. “I was out on Southbank a few years ago, a man had stolen a young lad’s money and we jumped on him to catch him." He described how his mother was very angry that he’d switched from dancing to crime-fighting.
The star has previously gone on record to say that his fame had put a strain on his family life and that his relationship with his mother was rocky. During his 2016 appearance on Loose Women, he said: “When I was a child my money had to be controlled, and it just kind of stayed that way. So when I was 18 I thought I’d grow out of it and do whatever I wanted but I never got that chance”.
From busking in the street to dancing on one of the world’s most well-known stages, George Sampson is one of BGT’s best-known winners and should the next winner receive the same level of success, they’re in for quite an adventure.
