Vinnie McKee’s deeply emotional audition on Britain’s Got Talent had the audience and judges standing up from their seats in awe.
The 29 year old caravan park worker and bingo caller from Glasgow sung a beautiful rendition of The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), which earned him a Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell, meaning he went straight to the semi-finals – the first of which is taking place on Saturday night. Vinnie is amongst a number of acts taking part in the first live semi-finals of the series this weekend.
Speaking after his epic performance, head judge Simon, 65, told him: “Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I don’t think we were expecting that. I’m actually quite speechless.”
As the judges gave their verdicts on the performance, the audience were erupting in chants demanding for one of the judges to press the Golden Buzzer. Simon then told him: “Vinnie, I’m missing something here. You don’t just go from bingo calling to that, were you trained as a singer or what?”
Vinnie replied: “No I’ve just always sang since I was a young age but I’ve been on the parks since I was 18 so I’ve never really left.” Simon then asked the audience: “What do you think,” before the crowd erupted in chants again demanding a judge to press the Golden Buzzer and Simon happily obliged before he got up on stage to celebrate with Vinnie and told him: “That was an absolutely spectacular version, genuinely.”
Vinnie was emotional as he left the stage, as he told Ant and Dec: “I don’t even know what to say.” The well deserved happy moment was tainted with some sadness though, as months before his epic audition Vinnie suffered heartache as his brother suddenly died.
The BGT semi-finalist’s brother Frankie was aged 47 when he died in May, from a suspected irregular heartbeat. Vinnie revealed to the Mirror that he was encouraged to audition for BGT by his late sibling before his death and, after performing at Frankie’s funeral, he decided to apply.
Earlier this week, Vinnie exclusively told us of his brother: “He would have been so excited for me.
“As soon as I was on that stage, I just felt something with me. When I came off stage and met my family for the first time, my mum burst into tears and so did I.
“I said, ‘He was definitely watching me,’ and she said, ‘He definitely was.’ He would have loved it,” Vinnie revealed.
Vinnie posted a touching video of himself singing an emotional version of Dancing in the Sky by Dani and Lizzy on TikTok, which he did as a tribute to his brother. In the emotional clip, Vinnie is seen singing the song into a microphone while sitting on a stage and a photo of his later brother Frankie is displayed on a screen in the background.
As he posted the video to his TikTok, he wrote: “Recently lost my big brother ajd although it was hard to do I wanted to perform a little tribute.”
Now, the singer is preparing for another performance, this time on the Britain’s Got Talent semi-final stage at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo on Saturday night. Speaking about his performance, Vinnie told us he’s kept his song choice a secret from everyone.
“I’ve not even let my mum hear the song. I’ve kept it to myself because it’s so different for me,” he said. “I’ve taken it and put my own twist on it.”
Vinnie is competing for a spot in the final against a string of variety acts on Saturday night. The semi-finalists performing on Saturday night are Heavysaurus, Teddy Magic, The Blackouts, Akira, Linda Mudzenda, Eden Choi and Auzzy Blood.
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