WHEN comic musician Siobhan Phillips made it to the final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2019, she couldn’t believe her luck.
But two years later, as the hit ITV series returns, she claims it was the result of a long, tough auditioning process – after which meddling producers would leave acts tearing their hair out.
And, in an exclusive interview with The Celeb Report, Siobhan, 45, from Wakefield, has opened up on behind the scenes secrets at BGT.
With hours of waiting and drastic changes constantly made at the last minute, she confesses she “really doesn’t know how she got through it all” – but has fond memories of one judge in particular.
Seven months of ‘coaching’
It was July 2018 when Siobhan was first contacted by producers after they’d spotted a YouTube video of her singing a comedy song.
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It would be a whole seven months of what she calls “coaching” before she actually auditioned in front of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, David Walliams, and Alesha Dixon.
“Producers saw me singing one comedy song, and asked if I did any others,” she recalls. “I said, ‘No’, and they said, ‘Well, can you write a song about being a single mum and everyday life?’
“You’ve got to be prepared to work with them, and they coach you and go back and forth with you for six or seven months before the first audition.”
However, she admits: “I probably would have preferred to not be as pigeon-holed as I was.”
14-hour days fuelled by Haribo
Siobhan’s first audition with the judges wasn’t until February 2019, which she describes as “psychologically tough” due to a lack of food and sleep.
She says: “I was there for 14 hours before I was seen. And you’re not eating. You just keep getting moved from one room to another.
“At one point, they sent this counsellor over to me because I think she thought I was having a breakdown.
“I was like, ‘I’m alright, I just want a butty!’ I hadn’t eaten for hours and they just gave me a tiny bag of Haribo Starmix!”
Siobhan was a roaring success when she finally took to the stage to sing her comedy tune – which she wrote to the producers’ brief.
The judges – especially David – absolutely loved her, and she got four yeses.
But, she tells us, as soon as the acts come offstage, they’re handed a piece of paper by producers explaining four yeses doesn’t necessarily mean you’re through to the next round.
She says: “I saw people rejoicing at four yeses, then handed this paper and I never saw them again or on the telly.
“Then you stress about whether you’re through to live shows or not for months.”
‘Cutthroat’ deliberation day
Siobhan tells us the ‘deliberation day’, in which the judges decide who’s actually going through to the live shows, is “more brutal” than the first round of auditions, and involves even more waiting around.
“It’s so cutthroat and you feel like you’re built up to be nervous,” she says.
“But once you’re past that day, you know you’re in the live shows.”
There’s six weeks from that day until the live shows, but Siobhan says producers change lyrics, set-ups – and even running orders – right up until the last minute.
Amanda ‘chats away’ to contestants
Siobhan is nonetheless grateful for her time on the show and remembers it fondly – and has nothing but nice things to say about the judges.
“Amanda is not how I imagined her to be at all,” she says. “She’s really friendly, she mucks in, and she turned up to the semis with her rollers in.
“She’s chatting away, her dressing room is with all the finalists, and her door’s open.
“You don’t see much of Simon.
“David is fantastic, spends loads of time with contestants chatting to us and encouraging us. He championed me, which was really nice.
“Alesha’s really nice as well, but she was pregnant so when she’d finish, she’d go home.”
Infamously toe-curling act was ‘set up’
Siobhan also lifted the lid on one of the most toe-curling moments in BGT history – when ventriloquist Jimmy Tamley called Simon up onstage as part of his act and was told “no” live on TV.
Speaking of her pal, Siobhan says: “He was told he could bring Simon onstage for his act, but when he did it live on the show, Simon did not want to be there, and it’s one of the most excruciating moments of telly.
“After the show he was so annoyed, and he was like, ‘Why would [the producers] actively encourage me to use Simon?’ because they knew how that’d go down.
“He handled it really well but it did affect him.”
‘We knew Colin would win’
Despite Siobhan making it through to the finals, Siobhan says she and her fellow contestants were all expecting 89-year-old war veteran Colin Thackery to win – and he did.
“We all knew Colin would win because the staging and everything for him was superb,” she recalls.
“We all pretty much looked at each other, and thought, ‘Should we just go home now? There’s a Wetherspoons round the corner!”
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She adds: “Colin fell asleep all the time. It was like he had narcolepsy. I don’t know how he did it.
“He was 89 and had to do all that waiting around like all of us. He deserved to win for that!”
