Teen wannabe has Fayth in her talent
SHE has a huge amount of sass, Tina Turner’s moves and Simon Cowell’s BGT golden buzzer. Fayth Ifil, 13, has spent hours practising every day during lockdown for her performance on the first of five Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals tonight.
The singer – who lives in Swindon with her brother Christian, 16, recruitment worker mum Lorraine and dad Jerel, a former footballer for Watford – feels destined for the stage.
Nerves are starting to build, but Fayth just wants to get on the stage and sing. “As soon as I start singing, the nerves vanish,” she says.
“So I just want to sing and not stop. My ambition is to have a singing career, travel the world and make an album. And one day I’d like to meet Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Emeli Sandé and Billie Eilish.
“I know it’ll mean a lot of hard work, and I just hope I have the chance to prove I can do it.”
Mum Lorraine first noticed Fayth’s singing talent when she was a toddler.
She says: “I love singing and we were always messing around together. I noticed she had a bit of vibrato in her voice when she was only three.”
Weekly sessions at the Pauline Quirke Academy saw her land West End roles in School of Rock and Tina, based on Tina Turner’s life, in 2018.
Jealousy from classmates meant school life hasn’t always gone smoothly. But Fayth drew upon wisdom way beyond her years to deal with unkind playground comments.
“My parents taught me to deal with negative energy by using positivity and kindness,” she says.
“So if anyone was mean, I just smiled. I didn’t want to do much else because they’re human beings just as much as anyone else.
“When I get nervous before singing, Dad gives me lots of encouraging words like ‘let the lion out of the cage’, which means show them everything I’ve got without holding back.
“But I still get jelly legs.”