Britain’s Got Talent audience in floods of tears after emotional performance from Grenfell Tower survivor
GRENFELL Tower survivor Leanne Mya left the Britain’s Got Talent audience in floods of tears tonight with her stunning performance. Leanne sang a heart-rending version of Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down and Simon Cowell called it “a moment with a capital M”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house and after her pitch perfect […]
GRENFELL Tower survivor Leanne Mya left the Britain’s Got Talent audience in floods of tears tonight with her stunning performance.
Leanne sang a heart-rending version of Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down and Simon Cowell called it “a moment with a capital M”.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house and after her pitch perfect ending, David Walliams’ eyes were rimmed with tears.
He admitted: “Obviously the story is one that touched everyone around the world. That was a beautiful beautiful version.”
Alesha Dixon agreed and told nervous Leanne: “I was holding on to every word you were saying. You created a beautiful atmosphere in the room. It was lovely.”
Amanda Holden tried to contain her emotions as she said: “You were so terrified and nervous, but you delivered that song with a quiet confidence. It was stunning.”
Simon asked Leanne if she wanted to talk about why she had come on the show, but she was too taken with emotion to speak.
She said: “Only briefly, I survived Grenfell Tower.”
Simon then asked her if her family were OK and she nodded before he asked her to begin, and she blew the audience away.
People in the crowd were seen wiping away tears and viewers at home were just as moved.
One viewer said on Twitter: “Well done #leanne you did #grenfell proud really lovely voice you’ve got #BGT”
Omg. Amazing.
tears to the young woman Leanne singing on…bgt very powerful… #BGT #britainsgottalent #GrenfellTower #grenfell
— ohDearyme (@ohdearyme) May 18, 2019
#BritainsGotTalent #BGT Huge respect to the Grenfell Tower Survivor, Leanne
Your voice is beautiful— MOLLY
WEMBLEY (@Artdipity_x) May 18, 2019
In an interview on Saturday Leanne called performing on the show a “dream” and said singing helped her deal with the trauma of escaping the uncontrollable blaze, which claimed the lives of 72 people in 2017.
However, Leanne admitted she is still haunted by the screams of people trapped inside and says she still suffers nightmarish flashbacks about what happened.
The 31-year-old, explained: “I don’t think that’s anything anyone can ever prepare for or ever stop thinking about.
“People and innocent kids, screaming ‘Help us’ and because it was so distinct you could hear the moment the cries stopped.
“There was this deafening silence and you knew that person, that child, had gone.”
Singing helped her to cope with the trauma and the ordeal of having to live in emergency accommodation with her young son Malachi after the fire.
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Leanne explained: “Singing has played an important role since the night of the fire – it’s helping me to process things.
“Being backstage on Britain’s Got Talent felt like a dream. Up until the day I auditioned, I hadn’t processed that I was actually going to go through with it.”
However, she didn’t want to focus on what she had been through on stage, despite knowing Simon Cowell had donated £100,000 to victims and recorded a charity single.
Leanne explained: “I wanted to be judged on my singing voice not on my story.”
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