Britain's Got Talent: The famous faces who auditioned when they were kids

The ITV show has discovered some exceptionally talented children over the years... 
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Helena Rose9 June 2020

Over the years, we’ve seen ITV mega-talent show Britain's Got Talent producing some of the most talented child stars in the biz.

Unlike other series, BGT has no age limit and has found a wide variety of young talent, from singers, dancers to magicians.

As the curtain has risen on a new series – though the live shows have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic – we’ve seen a brand new batch of talented children already.

Here we take a look at the show's most iconic younger stars and check out what they're up to now...

George Sampson

The teenage street dancer won the second series of Britain's Got Talent back in 2008, at the age of 14. It was the second time he had auditioned for the show, having failed to pass the audition stages in 2007.

He’s likely most remembered for his semi-final dance, to a remix of Singin’ in the Rain, complete with artificial onstage rain machine. The Mint Royale track went to number 1 in the UK on download sales alone in the week after Sampson's performance.

After BGT, Sampson made his stage debut in the West End hip-hop musical Into the Hoods, and continued his dance career through adverts and festivals. He released a number 30 hit single, and a number of dance DVDs.

He also had an acting career, most noticeably in Waterloo Road, Mount Pleasant and Emmerdale.

Paige Turley

The Scottish Love Island star appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2012, as a nervous teenager aged 14.

Turley blew audiences away with her rendition of Birdy’s Skinny Love, leaving her dad in tears and having her performance branded “fantastic” by Simon Cowell.

After receiving the inevitable four yeses, Turley progressed to the live semi-finals, where she sang "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars, but did not proceed to the live finals.

More recently, she caused ripples as Lewis Capaldi’s ex, when it was revealed he penned the hit “Someone You Loved” after her.

She entered the Love Island villa last year, for the very first edition of Winter Love Island in Cape Town – ending up winning the entire show with boyfriend Finnley Tapp. They split the £50,000 prize and are now isolating together in Glasgow.

Perri Kiely

The 24-year-old is best known for being the cute kid from the dance troupe Diversity, who won Britain's Got Talent in 2009.

Diversity famously beat Susan Boyle in the final and after their win, Kiely has featured in several dance tours and televised competitions.

Since then, he’s teamed up with teammate Jordan Banjo to host the fourth series of the popular Sky competition Got to Dance. The duo then went on to host their own TV show, Jordan and Perri's Ultimate Block Party, which saw them teach young people about how to form their own dance troupes.

Kiely and Banjo have since hosted the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards together three times.

He is also no stranger to appearing on TV competitions – in 2014, he won the diving competition Splash!, and triumphed on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off in 2018. More recently, he finished as runner-up in the twelfth series of Dancing on Ice.

He also stole our hearts in 2017 as a nervous romantic in the E4 dating show Celebs Go Dating.

Megan McKenna

Ex-Towie star Megan McKenna has always loved singing, with a stop-gap as a reality star on the way.

In her Britain’s Got Talent audition over 10 years ago, McKenna was part of pop due Harmony along with her friend Demi. Aged 16, the pair belted out a rendition of What Is This Feeling from musical Wicked, complete with florescent tutus and stripy leg warmers.

Simon Cowell didn’t exactly love the audition, but he certainly changed his tune 10 years later as McKenna won The X Factor: Celebrity.

She wowed the judges and public by singing many of her own songs, which later charted on iTunes.

McKenna was no stranger to appearing on TV before The X Factor though – she's been on Ex On The Beach, Celebrity Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating and Celebs on the Farm - but is best known for her time on The Only Way Is Essex.

In 2017, she starred in her own reality series, There's Something About Megan - which focused on her travelling to Nashville to launch a career in country music, releasing her debut album ‘Story of Me’ in 2018.

McKenna began recording her second studio album earlier this year with Simon Cowell.

AJ Pritchard

In 2013, Pritchard and his professional dance partner Chloe Hewitt auditioned for Britain's Got Talent, at 18 and 17 years old.

The Latin dance duo soared through the first audition, and competed in a semi-final before getting eliminated.

From 2016 up until last year, Pritchard was a professional dancer on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. But despite being confirmed in the 2020 professional line-up, in March, Pritchard announced that he was leaving the show in order to pursue a career in presenting.

Shaheen Jafargholi

Although he later became known for his role as Shakil Kazemi in EastEnders, Shaheen first shot to fame on ITV talent contest Britain's Got Talent where he made it all the way to the finals, finishing in seventh place.

Appearing back in 2009, he was only 12 years old when he captivated audiences with his rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Who’s Lovin’ You”.

After performing on the Britain's Got Talent tour, Jafargholi sang a musical tribute of "Who's Lovin' You" on stage a globally televised funeral memorial service for Michael Jackson. He had been originally invited to perform with Jackson in his This Is It series of London concerts.

Most notably since BGT, Jafargholi joined the cast of the BBC soap EastEnders in 2016, as character Shakil Kazemi. His character was killed off two years later in May 2018 in a knife-crime storyline where Shakil was stabbed and killed by a gang. He later joined the cast of Casualty.

Connie Talbot

Travelling way back to the first ever series of BGT, Connie Talbot stole the nation’s hearts with her gap-toothed smile on the first series of the show, when she was only six years old.

She made it all the way to the final and sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow but missed out on the prize to Paul Potts.

Her debut album, titled Over The Rainbow, when she was seven years old, sold more than 250,000 copies and went to number one in three countries.

From 2009 to 2016, she released two Christmas albums, an album called Beautiful World under Hong Kong based label Evosound, an album entitled Matters To Me, and opened a special concert to celebrate South Korea hosting the G20 summit.

The now 19-year-old still travels the world and sings. Most recently, she competed on Britain's Got Talent: The Champions, where she performed an original song.

Sheku Kenneh-Mason

In 2015, cello player Sheku Kanneh-Mason and five of his musical siblings competed on Britain’s Got Talent together, sailing through with four yeses.

The group made it to the semi-finals of the show, when they played a musical medley of classical and pop music.

Kanneh-Mason won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year award, becoming the first black musician to win the award since its launch in 1978.

But the now 22-year-old cellist rose to fame in 2018 when he played at the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan.

And although the Kenneh-Masons didn’t win BGT, they performed at the Royal Variety Show in 2019, wowing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the audience.

Hollie Steel

In 2009, at the age of ten, Steel was one of ten finalists on the third series of the talent show.

She wowed judges and audience alike with her ballet dancing and powerful singing to "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady.

She famously panicked and stopped mid-performance during the semi-final, but Simon Cowell gave her a second chance to sing at the end of the show. She sailed through to the final and finished in sixth place.

Steel has had a singing career since the show, her debut album ‘Hollie’, was released in 2010. In April 2011, Steel was cast in the role of Louisa von Trapp in Andrew Lloyd Webber's UK tour of The Sound of Music.

She then went to work in musical theatre, and sing on Royal Caribbean cruises.

Jack Carroll

In 2013, Carroll competed in the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent at the age of 14.

Carroll, whose cerebral palsy is often a subject of his comedy act, had the judges in stitches and they unanimously voted him through to the semi-finals.

The young comedian ended up in the final, finishing in second place, behind Hungarian shadow theatre group Attraction.

Prior to BGT, Carroll’s comedy chops had already been spotted by comedian Jason Manford, and Carroll has performed with Manford on several occasions.

In 2012, he won a Pride of Britain Award in the "Teenager of Courage" category.

Carroll then dipped into acting, appearing in BBC One’s Big School, Sky1 show Trollied, daytime soap Doctors, and in the 2019 film Eaten by Lions. He also appeared on several CBBC shows.

Kyle Tomlinson

Having previously been sent home unsuccessful from an audition on series eight of the show, Tomlinson returned on series 11, and received the Golden Buzzer from judge David Walliams.

He was 15 at the time of his audition, and sang a rousing cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.

He reached the final of the show, finishing in sixth place and losing out to pianist Tokio Myers.

Tomlinson has now performed all over Europe, and performed at the Queen's official birthday party in Abu Dhabi. He also become an ambassador for the Special Olympics.

Since his BGT days, he has also duetted with Sam Bailey, Tony Hadley and Lucy Spraggan.

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