Peterborough youngster prepares for semi-finals of The Voice Kids

Having never sung on a stage before or had professional lessons, rock music-lover George nervously went for the blind auditions with mum Jodie Elliot (41) and dad Karl Elliott (41) from Walton and sang Muse’s hit song: Plug In Baby.

George said: “I am a massive fan of Muse so I wanted to do a Muse song that would suit my voice and it ticked all the boxes really. I was more nervous than I ever have been before in my life on the blind auditions. I was considering leaving because I was so nervous but mum said: “‘Are you sure you could go on?’ and I said ok.. I didn’t think anyone would turn.”

Having shown his potential, judges Danny Jones (of McFly) and Paloma Faith both pressed their ‘I choose you’ buttons wanting to add George to their teams. Completely unexpecting any judge to turn and knowing Danny: ‘was the man for him’, George followed his heart and selected him.

Giving George an extra token of luck, mum Jodie handmade a black bracelet for him with the letters “G,G,G” and a four-leaf clover to wear for each performance. The G,G,G was standing for a nickname given to George ‘the triple G’ by a boxing coach.

Leading him to the battles stage of the contest, George conquered his nerves and performed with his fellow contestants for a place in the semi-final. Singing James Ray’s Got My Mind Set On You, George wowed the judges and secured the place in the semis and got a big hug from coach Danny.

George said: “I still can’t believe I am in the semi-final if I am honest, I really appreciate Danny believing in me, putting me through to this stage. I want to put on a big performance. I really didn’t expect to get through because Jimmy, Nessa and Cathal are really good singers and performed so well too. Since the blind audition I had over 100 notifications a day with all my friends telling me: ‘you’re so good’ but I had to keep it all a secret!”

Proud parents Jodie and Karl have been ‘amazed’ and ‘super proud’ of George’s progress in the competition so far.

Jodie said: “We never thought anything would come off it. Around 12,000 singers applied this year and didn’t want to get George’s hopes up too much, but now he’s in the final 12. We thought we would fill out the form and give it a go but we never expected this. George works really hard everyday but it’s not really work for him as he loves it, we love seeing all the other kids and their families too. We’ve felt so welcomed and so lucky.”

Jodie has also helped harness George’s musical talents as the ‘von Trapp’ family are a musical bunch. Despite never having professional lessons, George’s talent mostly comes from home karaoke sessions at family gatherings. Though both George and brother Jacob (eight) sometimes were fed up of being asked to ‘open the show’.

Always aiming high, George’s go-to karaoke song is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, where mum Jodie sings the high-notes and Jacob covers the lows.

In preparation for the semi-finals, George has been practising everyday with his mum.

George said: “You have to practice everyday to get it right, if you want to get through, you need to work hard everyday, you can’t miss out even a single day. I’ve been doing vocal warm ups with mum, she puts it on Spotify and with that I have a massive drink of water and I’m ready.”

Though he feels prepared already, George is still coming to terms with making it into the semi-finals of a national televised talent competition.

He said: “If I got through to the final I would be over the moon, it would take me years to get my head around that, not like the weeks it’s taken to get my head around this. It would be amazing. There is a lot of talent, the people that have gotten through so far to the semi-final, as all the judges have said, it’s the best semi-final that they are the best they have ever had. All of the others are unbelievably talented.”

Though George can’t say what he will be singing, he promises it’s a ‘really great song’ which will be: “sure to be a crowdpleaser.”

Looking ahead, George wants to pursue music for a career, even by choosing his secondary school, Queen Katherine Academy, because they have multiple recording studios.

He said: “In the future I’d like to be in a band like McFly, and to get a band together and start making music. I’d like to take a music GCSE and l’m looking forward to using the school’s recording studios and I’d like to perform in some assemblies.”

To watch George in the semi-final of The Voice Kids, the show will be airing on August 22 on ITV1.