Judge David Williams trashed 12-year-old singer Kyle Tomlinson on Britain’s Got Talent, harshly telling the young lad to “get a singing teacher”. Well Kyle decided to come back at age 15 and prove the funny man wrong. The teen smashed it out of the park with a show-stopping version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.
Simon Cowell thoroughly enjoyed watching Williams eat humble pie, as Kyle showed off his dynamic and expressive voice. The young singer sang delicately in the introduction then brought out the big guns for the chorus, hitting the high notes with passion and style. Watch his audition below.
At the start of the audition Kyle took a moment to collect his nerves, before explaining that he’d auditioned before and pointed out Williams as the judge who had previously harshly criticized him. Williams was a bit taken aback, saying “me? That doesn’t sound like the kind of sensible thing I’d say.” Cowell wasn’t going to let Williams wiggle out of it though, and kept him on the hotplate by confirming with Kyle that he was only 12 years old when Williams dressed him down.
By this point the audience and even the other judges were firmly on Kyle’s side. Alesha Dixon confirmed with the young singer that for the previous three years he’d been working with a singing teacher and was now feeling more confident with his vocals. You can see the teen’s dramatic performance of Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” in the Britain’s Got Talent final below.
After nailing his audition Kyle was overcome with emotion and let the tears flow while the audience gave him a rapturous applause. The judges gave Kyle quite a different reception this time around, with Dixon saying “you stood up there, you put your heart and soul on the line and we all felt it. And we were all there with you – that was brilliant.”
Cowell was also on team Kyle, saying “this just shows you Kyle, when someone grinds you down and says you’re not good enough, you come back and look them in the eye and you go ‘I am good enough’.” At this point, all eyes were on Williams, who seemed chagrined as Cowell put him in the fire yet again. But Williams could see which way the wind was blowing and announced “I thought it was really good” and smashed the golden buzzer.
The crowd went absolutely wild at this point and Kyle’s parents rushed onstage to celebrate with him, with all three overcome with emotion. Williams came onstage and gave the teen a hug and told him “Well done! You sung with real passion and that’s what it’s all about.” Kyle progressed through to the finals and eventually placed sixth overall in the series 11 competition. He has since continued to be active with music and earlier this year competed in the Spanish show Got Talent All-Stars, where he advanced to the final. If you would like to see more from Kyle Tomlinson, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram.