. . . and the cutie they’ll have to beat
WHEN Beau Dermott takes to the stage tonight, it will be as a diminutive superstar in the making, fighting to win the tenth series of Britain’s Got Talent.
The 12-year-old’s pitch-perfect rendition of Defying Gravity, from the hit musical Wicked, has been compared to Susan Boyle’s star- making performance of I Dreamed A Dream seven years ago.
The staggering audition prompted Amanda Holden to push the golden buzzer and send her straight to the semi-finals. Beau impressed again on Wednesday with her version of Someone Like You, securing her place in tonight’s grand final.
But despite her prodigious talent making her seem older than her 12 years, Beau loves spending time with her family at home in Widnes, Cheshire, and playing with her bichon frise.
Even as a toddler her voice was something special, with her mother, Karen, claiming her crying could raise the roof. Karen, a receptionist, and her husband Ian, a bricklayer, first realised Beau’s talent when she watched The Sound Of Music as a young girl, her performances of the songs echoing around the house.
Tempted into the world of showbiz through singing lessons and local shows, she now attends a performing arts school, The Hammond School in Chester, which costs £4,275 a term. Ian has previously said: ‘She was all set to go to a local secondary, but we heard about this school and it was a no-brainer to give it a try. She just loves performing, although the school is academic, too.’
This is her second time applying for BGT. ‘She sang I Dreamed A Dream but didn’t get through,’ Ian said. ‘I think they thought she wasn’t ready. It was Beau’s idea to go again.’
Perhaps this experience has helped her to stay calm amid all the attention — she has admitted to having ‘butterflies’ before going on stage but said they disappear when she sings.
However, some have claimed her experience amounts to cheating. She has her family to protect her, though, with Ian telling the Mail last month: ‘Cheat is a big word and it’s not nice. All our daughter has done is had singing lessons locally and entered a few talent contests along with scores of other girls her age.
‘ We know the cliche of the stageschool brat and that’s not our daughter. You only need to spend five minutes in her company to know that she’s just a lovely, normal girl.’
Her main competitors tonight are mother and son duo Jamie Gilpin and Melanie Bell, magician Richard Jones, who carries odds of 6/5 to win, and 100 Voices Of Gospel, who are 7/1. Beau is pegged at 5/2 by Ladbrokes, putting her in second place.
A record deal is said to be imminent.