Falkirk teen hopes to wow judges in Britain's Got Talent semi final

The 16-year-old is a member of dance group, Unity, who are hoping to impress the judges with their performance once again and secure a place in the ITV talent show’s grand final on Sunday evening.

The group are made up of students from Jelli Studios in Liverpool, the theatre school of former Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison, where Sophie, a former Larbert High pupil from New Carron now trains.

Unity made it through to the live semi-finals on the penultimate auditions show of the series. Despite all the judges having used their Golden Buzzers, the group’s emotive performance to The Village by Wrabel saw Simon Cowell break the rules and press the buzzer for a second time.

He described their performance as “astonishing” and “an audition I’ll never forget”, adding “You deserve that golden buzzer, it was absolutely beautiful”.

The performance included powerful messages from some of the young performers and received a standing ovation from the audience and all four of the judges.

Sophie, who danced with Broadway School of Performing Arts for five years before heading south, had kept the outcome of the audition a secret from her family and friends, returning home to watch the show with them.

Mum Louise described it as “probably one of the best secrets she’s ever kept” having filmed the audition back in February. She said the whole family are “so proud” of Sophie.

Mum, dad Eddie and sister Aimee, 13, will all be cheering Sophie and Unity on tonight in the semi-final and will be casting their votes in a bid to help them reach the final on Sunday.

They hope that the public will get behind the dancers and show their support.

Louise said Sophie is both “excited and a little nervous too”.

She added: “Even if this is as far as they get they have done tremendously well and the experience has been really incredible for them all. We are so proud.”

Four semi-finals have already taken place this week, on Monday to Thursday evenings. Those acts already through to the final on Sunday are Musa Motha, Amy Lou Smith, Viggo Venn, Olivia Lynes, Ghetto Kids, Travis George, Duo Odyssey and Malakai Bayoh.

The acts will compete in the final for a spot at the Royal Variety Performance and a £250,000 money prize.

The fifth semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent is on STV at 8pm on Friday, June 2.