Fia's story

"We didn’t expect to get a standing applause and to get to the live semi-finals of the 10th Britain's Got Talent was just surreal"

So in 2016 there was an audition for Britain’s Got Talent in Colchester. It was held in a pub in town called The Bull. I was in sixth-form back then and my mum found the audition.

On the day of the auditions, she called me up and she was like, “Fia! Come to The Bull pub! We’re going to audition for BGT!” And I was like, “REALLY? I’m really tired from my studies at sixth form!” I didn’t think I wanted to audition but we did it anyway.

Initially we didn’t want to audition as a duo, we auditioned as solo artists. My mum sang I Will Always Love You and I sang a musical song. And then the producer said, “wait a minute, aren’t you two mother and daughter? Why don’t you sing a duet together?” so we didn’t prepare or rehearse, we just winged it.

And I don’t know how but we got to the judges audition on TV and it was a surreal experience. I got to meet all the judges; I got to meet a lot of talented performers.

I was so scared because the people before us on the stage were getting buzzed off by the red buzzer. So before I came on I thought the audience and Simon Cowell were going to hate our act because sometimes he doesn’t like old stuff, old songs, and we were going to sing Tell Him by Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion, so it was very nerve racking and there were so many people watching! We didn’t expect to get a standing applause and to get to the live semi-finals of the 10th Britain's Got Talent was just surreal! It opened up so many doors and I’m just so grateful!

We got to go to ITV breakfast show, Lorraine. We got to film some stuff with Stephen Mulhern the presenter of Britain’s Got More Talent on ITV2. It was really fun.

We get to see some people from the competition and how they have changed and how they have progressed since 2016. They are so much better now than they were then. We get to see how their act has progressed on social media like through their Instagram stories.

Right now I am focusing on Uni. My main focus is graduating and getting a good degree from Essex Business School. After that I’m going to leave my choices open. I don’t want to limit myself to just one thing. I want to be able to choose whether I feel like doing an accounting or finance job in London or sing.

I chose to study BSc Accounting and Finance because at sixth form I studied accounting, business, economic, maths and further maths so all my subjects were linked to accounting and finance. I realised I liked the subject and chose to study further at university.

I love maths. Enjoying and loving maths does not equal to being good at maths… but, you know you’ve got to do something you enjoy.

I might not even be an accountant at all and just go into full time singing! It’s so different from my degree. But maths and music are so closely interconnected! When you read music - that requires maths skills: a semi-tone is half and the tone is a whole so you have ¾ beat and ¼ beat so it is very mathsy! Both my worlds collide.

I still sing on weekends and evening. I perform in gigs and shows with my mum, so it’s good that we live together because we can still rehearse and practice together when we have shows and gigs and for when we get booked for events.

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