Britain's Got Talent golden buzzer act, Stacey Leadbeatter, left viewers astounded with her incredible singing on this evening's episode. However, what the audience may not have realised is that the talented supermarket worker had sung in public just once prior to taking the BGT stage by storm, having had to retrain her voice due to a speech impediment, reports the Mirror.
The 29 year old mum disclosed the challenges she faced on her journey. "It is extremely hard," Stacey shared.
"I have a video of me singing from four or five years ago and you couldn't actually understand properly what I was singing due to the severity of speech impediments. So during lockdown, what I used to do is I used to sit through like adult speech therapy sessions on YouTube and then I'd introduced it into my singing."
She mentioned that maintaining her vocal skills requires continuous effort. "If I don't do certain exercises for say a couple of weeks at a time, I will start to revert back to how I was," she explained.
Recalling her upbringing in Birstall, Stacey remembered the difficulties she endured at school due to bullying over her condition. "In high school I used to stutter a bit and people would mimic me," she recounted "Children unfortunately sometimes can be a bit harsh and I wasn't the popular girl at school."
Stacey credits the harsh criticism she's faced for making her more resilient and more resolute in pursuing her dreams—as demonstrated by last night's BGT success, where her performance of Singing the Leona Lewis version on Snow Patrol's Run had judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon rising to their feet. KSI, fulfilling the role of guest judge, was so impressed he gave her his coveted golden buzzer.
It's quite astounding that before BGT, her only experience singing publicly was to a mere 50 people at a local pub, having previously turned down chances to perform at weddings and parties due to anxiety and self-doubt. Shedding light on what ultimately drove her to try out for the show, she revealed: "I sing on TikTok and people said I needed to apply. When the opportunity came up, I though it's now or never. It's always been a dream of mine to sing in front of Simon Cowell because I've watched him since we were a little girl. I've always wanted to impress him."
Her passion for singing ignited as a young girl after seeing Grease with her mother. She received a karaoke machine when she was 10 and dedicatedly nurtured her outstanding vocal talent in her bedroom. Yet, she admits to being too reserved to sing for the patrons at the cafe where she works, located within Booths supermarket close to her home in Keighley.
"I don't sing to them, I'm actually really shy. I just don't have the confidence. I've had people like message me asking me to sing at their weddings and at parties. I just make excuses like I don't have the right equipment. I overthink about what people think of me. But now I've done the scariest thing in the world and I'm working on my confidence. It's just about retraining your brain. I think the confidence will hopefully come with the Britain's Got Talent performance."
Stacey beamed as she recounted her golden buzzer moment on BGT, which has crowned an incredible start to 2025 for her, including getting engaged to her childhood friend Richard after they reconnected years later. "I've known him since I was 17," she said with a smile.
"We've always been with other people, but had that connection there and never acted on it. And then we both became single last year and we decided to meet up to see if that connection's still there and it clearly is. He proposed to me on his birthday this year in front of his family and his children."
The couple is eyeing a 2027 wedding date. "He's the proudest fiance. He'll listen to me sing all the time and we love a karaoke night."
Stacey, now in high spirits, reminisces on the tougher times while raising her 10 year old daughter Aaralyn as a single parent. "I've done it pretty much on my own, me and her dad broke up when she was one," she shares with us.
"I've had a couple relationships between, but unfortunately the men weren't so kind to me. So it's pretty much been me and my daughter the whole time. She's everything to me. She's my little biggest fan. We sing the Whitney Houston song I Will Always Love You together, it's our song."
Reflecting on a particularly trying period two years back, Stacey is optimistic about what's ahead. "If you'd have told 2023 me what's happening now, I wouldn't have believed it. I had some personal things going on. I just didn't deal with them very well and I was in a bad place. Now I'm newly engaged and on BGT. It's mad."
she expressed.
Stacey is hopeful that Britain's Got Talent (BGT) will pave her way to West End. "Just being able to sing on a stage in front of people and making people happy with my voice, that's all I want," she concludes.
