Alesha Dixon gave Lifford Shillingford her golden buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent tonight – after holding back tears over his struggle in the music industry.
The 42-year-old South London singer had previously had chart success just as Alesha was also starting her career with Misteeq in the early 2000s.
While she found fame in her girl group, Lifford retreated from the limelight after being struck down with depression and anxiety following the success of his song Please Don’t Turn Me On with the Artful Dodger.
It resulted in him halting his promising career in its tracks and he retreated from the limelight.
Lifford made no secret of his history as he appeared on the stage, and joked with the judges: ‘[Mis-teeq] were headlining, they came on after us. I think they liked them a little bit more!’ as he was reunited with Alesha.
After overcoming his demons, he tried to win over the judges with a rendition of A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke – and succeeded when Alesha gave him a free ride through to the live shows.
As the song came to an end, Lifford was seen tearing up by the overwhelmingly positive response from the crowd, the judges, and Ant and Dec on the wings of the stage.
After giving him a standing ovation, Alesha seized her moment and slammed on the Golden Buzzer – sending Lifford straight through to the live shows.
Lifford clearly looked stunned at the gesture as he was showered in confetti, and his wife ran on to the stage to hug him.
‘Thank you so much! Thank you so much. Oh, man!’ he told Alesha as she joined him on stage.
Alesha looked close to tears as she hugged her old friend praised him for his guts and perseverance.
She defended her decision later to Amanda as she said: ‘If you can’t give someone with a voice like that a break, then what’s the point of having the Golden Buzzer?’
Amanda is now the only judge remaining with her golden buzzer – with David Walliams choosing reggae singer Donchez Dacres after his performance of catchy original Wiggle Wine, just last week.
Magician Marc Spelmann was picked by Ant and Dec after leaving the crowd weeping with a magic trick centred on his family.
The emotional tribute revealed that his wife was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant with a baby they had been trying to have via IVF for five years.
(It later came out he had slammed the show years before appearing, which is, you know, awkward)
Father/son duo Tim and Jack Goodacre won Simon Cowell’s golden buzzer, after their acoustic guitar performance left the music mogul reflecting on his relationship with his own son, Eric.