BGT golden buzzer star's health condition explained as she blows judges away

Britain's Got Talent golden buzzer Stacey Leadbeatter blew everyone away with her vocals on tonight's show.

But what most people didn’t know is that the supermarket worker had performed just once before wowing the judges on BGT - and that she had to retrain her voice as a result of having a speech impediment. Mum-of-one Stacey, 29, reveals it’s been a long road to get to where she is. “It is extremely hard,” she admits. “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 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.”

Stacey says she still has to work on her voice now. “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 says. Growing up in Birstall, Leeds, she recalls school being tough as she was bullied for her condition. “In high school I used to stutter a bit and people would mimic me," she recalls. "Children unfortunately sometimes can be a bit harsh and I wasn't the popular girl at school.”

But Stacey says their unkind comments have made her stronger and more determined to succeed - as seen on last night’s BGT, where she had all judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon on their feet with her rendition of Singing the Leona Lewis version on Snow Patrol’s Run. Guest judge KSI loved it so much he hit his golden buzzer.

It’s hard to believe the only time she'd ever performed before BGT was to 50 people in a local pub - turning down opportunities to perform at weddings and parties through fear and lack of confidence. Explaining what pushed her into auditioning, she said: “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.”

With a love of singing since a little girl after watching Grease with her mum, she was bought a karaoke machine aged 10 and practised religiously in her room and honed her amazing voice. But she says she’s too shy to perform to her customers at the cafe at Booths supermarket near her Keighley home.

“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 the 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.”

Her BGT golden buzzer has topped of an amazing start to 2025 for Stacey, who also got engaged to childhood friend Richard, after reuniting years later. “I’ve known him since I was 17," she smiled. "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." They’re planning a 2027 wedding. “He’s the proudest fiance. He'll listen to me sing all the time and we love a karaoke night.”

Blissfully happy now, Stacey says it’s not always been like, as she raised daughter Aaralyn, 10, as a single mum. “I’ve done it pretty much on my own, me and her dad broke up when she was one," she tells. "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.”

Opening up on a difficult period two years ago, Stacey is now looking to the future. She said: “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.”

Stacey hopes BGT will be a springboard to the 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 says.