June 2014
WHEN her parents split up, four-year-old Lucy Kay moved from Leicestershire to Sutton-in-Ashfield with her mum.
“I don’t quite know why she chose Sutton,” says Lucy, 25, who now lives in Glasgow.
“She met my stepdad on holiday and he lived in Derby but she didn’t want to live in Derby. I suppose it was closer to him and was like a fresh start for us.”
For Lucy it was the beginning of years of abuse, both verbal and physical, at the hands of school bullies.
“It was a tough time,” she says.
“People had already made friends and families knew each other so we were very much on our own until my stepdad moved in.”
Even then she didn’t mix with other children from the neighbourhood or school. And that’s when the bullying started. Not because of the way she look but because she loved classical music.
“Singing was the main thing that people didn’t accept and didn’t like. They thought it was weird and funny that I was singing ‘God music’. Everyone else was into techno or whatever but I wasn’t interested.”
Lucy was subjected to punches and kicks. On one occasion she was knocked unconscious.
“When I woke up they were burning cigarettes on me,” she recalls. The bullying was so extreme that police were called, although no charges were made.
She became more withdrawn and didn’t want to leave the house to go to the local shop, never mind school.
By the age of 11, mum moved the family to Kirkby-in-Ashfield in order to free her from the abuse – but it continued.
“Some of them at the new school had friends at my old one. I wasn’t interested in going out.
“I didn’t want boyfriends or drinking... and then I grew up and I did,” she laughs.
Lucy failed her GCSEs because she’d missed so many classes, although her headteacher would later help her re-sit them. After passing them and A levels, she left Nottinghamshire for good, to study music in Glasgow. That was four years ago.
“My mum said that when I was about two, the radio would be on and I’d go straight over to it and turn the dial to a station that I liked,” she says, trying to pin down why she loved classical and opera music when none of her family did.
“It was always Classic FM or a station playing orchestral music.”
She adds: “I think Charlotte Church was my first inspiration, the one who made me want to be a classical singer. She was my age when she was discovered singing on This Morning.
“I wanted to be just like her.
“That was the first time my mum says she saw me get excited about something. I was a very sad and lonely child and mum could never get me socialising and it was a very hard childhood until my singing took off.”
She had singing lessons and her teacher suggested she audition for Cantamus.
“My life changed forever from then on,” says Lucy of the Mansfield girls’ choir who she would tour the world with.
“That experience helps me when I perform now,” she admits.
“And it’ll help no end with the up and coming tour with Collabro.”
She will join the theatrical boy band, who won Britain’s Got Talent in a final seen by ten million people, on their debut tour next year, including the Royal Concert Hall in January.
“I know this will be very different because I’ll be doing it on my own and that’s so daunting,” says Lucy, adding that the tour is “one of her dreams”.
“I was so nervous when I went on the programme because I didn’t have the safety and comfort of being in the middle of three rows of girls. I never realised how important that was until I did it on my own. And it overwhelmed me.
“At the first Britain’s Got Talent audition, when I was singing in front of Simon Cowell and the other judges, in my head I was thinking ‘what am I doing!?’”
She adds: “I still get the same nerves that I did at that first audition. I don’t think they’ll ever go away. It’s who I am. I wish I was ultra-confident but I’m a very sensitive person. I’m starting to deal with it better. If there’s an article in the press with incorrect information, I do laugh it off now.”
She describes the past two weeks since the final as a “whirlwind”.
Last weekend she was in London at the Natural History Museum performing in front of a host of celebrities.
“It was a Samuel L Jackson charity event called One For The Boys, a campaign to raise awareness of male cancer and I was definitely star spotting. There was Lewis Hamilton, David Walliams, Amanda Holden, Pixie Lott, Holly Valance... and others who I thought I recognised but I’m not sure who they were,” she laughs.
An ego-deflating experience then for Colin Firth, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Piven, who were also there.
“Samuel L Jackson introduced himself to me and my partner David; it was an amazing thing to be a part of.”
And this week it was confirmed that she had signed a “multi-album deal” with Sony.
Although her mum was with her for the Britain’s Got Talent final, Lucy has not had time to visit her in Kirkby-in-Ashfield since then.
Maybe she doesn’t want to go back because it’s her mum’s fault for moving her to that part of Notts in the first place?
“I know!” she laughs.
“I don’t know what went through her mind.”
But she then adds: “As much as I wish I’d been brought up somewhere else, as she does, the reason I went through what I did was probably to get me to the point I’m at now. Would I have found singing? Would I have carried it on? Would I have that passion I have now to never give up?
“Had my dad not left and I’d still been living in Leicester, I’d not have found Cantamus and I certainly wouldn’t have been on Britain’s Got Talent.
“I firmly believe that there’s a path for everyone and everything happens for a reason.”
Lucy Kay will join Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on January 30. Tickets go on sale today at 10am priced from £19.50 to £38.50 and are available from the venue. Call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.
“I don’t quite know why she chose Sutton,” says Lucy, 25, who now lives in Glasgow.
“She met my stepdad on holiday and he lived in Derby but she didn’t want to live in Derby. I suppose it was closer to him and was like a fresh start for us.”
For Lucy it was the beginning of years of abuse, both verbal and physical, at the hands of school bullies.
“It was a tough time,” she says.
“People had already made friends and families knew each other so we were very much on our own until my stepdad moved in.”
Even then she didn’t mix with other children from the neighbourhood or school. And that’s when the bullying started. Not because of the way she look but because she loved classical music.
“Singing was the main thing that people didn’t accept and didn’t like. They thought it was weird and funny that I was singing ‘God music’. Everyone else was into techno or whatever but I wasn’t interested.”
Lucy was subjected to punches and kicks. On one occasion she was knocked unconscious.
“When I woke up they were burning cigarettes on me,” she recalls. The bullying was so extreme that police were called, although no charges were made.
She became more withdrawn and didn’t want to leave the house to go to the local shop, never mind school.
By the age of 11, mum moved the family to Kirkby-in-Ashfield in order to free her from the abuse – but it continued.
“Some of them at the new school had friends at my old one. I wasn’t interested in going out.
“I didn’t want boyfriends or drinking... and then I grew up and I did,” she laughs.
Lucy failed her GCSEs because she’d missed so many classes, although her headteacher would later help her re-sit them. After passing them and A levels, she left Nottinghamshire for good, to study music in Glasgow. That was four years ago.
“My mum said that when I was about two, the radio would be on and I’d go straight over to it and turn the dial to a station that I liked,” she says, trying to pin down why she loved classical and opera music when none of her family did.
“It was always Classic FM or a station playing orchestral music.”
She adds: “I think Charlotte Church was my first inspiration, the one who made me want to be a classical singer. She was my age when she was discovered singing on This Morning.
“I wanted to be just like her.
“That was the first time my mum says she saw me get excited about something. I was a very sad and lonely child and mum could never get me socialising and it was a very hard childhood until my singing took off.”
She had singing lessons and her teacher suggested she audition for Cantamus.
“My life changed forever from then on,” says Lucy of the Mansfield girls’ choir who she would tour the world with.
“That experience helps me when I perform now,” she admits.
“And it’ll help no end with the up and coming tour with Collabro.”
She will join the theatrical boy band, who won Britain’s Got Talent in a final seen by ten million people, on their debut tour next year, including the Royal Concert Hall in January.
“I know this will be very different because I’ll be doing it on my own and that’s so daunting,” says Lucy, adding that the tour is “one of her dreams”.
“I was so nervous when I went on the programme because I didn’t have the safety and comfort of being in the middle of three rows of girls. I never realised how important that was until I did it on my own. And it overwhelmed me.
“At the first Britain’s Got Talent audition, when I was singing in front of Simon Cowell and the other judges, in my head I was thinking ‘what am I doing!?’”
She adds: “I still get the same nerves that I did at that first audition. I don’t think they’ll ever go away. It’s who I am. I wish I was ultra-confident but I’m a very sensitive person. I’m starting to deal with it better. If there’s an article in the press with incorrect information, I do laugh it off now.”
She describes the past two weeks since the final as a “whirlwind”.
Last weekend she was in London at the Natural History Museum performing in front of a host of celebrities.
“It was a Samuel L Jackson charity event called One For The Boys, a campaign to raise awareness of male cancer and I was definitely star spotting. There was Lewis Hamilton, David Walliams, Amanda Holden, Pixie Lott, Holly Valance... and others who I thought I recognised but I’m not sure who they were,” she laughs.
An ego-deflating experience then for Colin Firth, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Piven, who were also there.
“Samuel L Jackson introduced himself to me and my partner David; it was an amazing thing to be a part of.”
And this week it was confirmed that she had signed a “multi-album deal” with Sony.
Although her mum was with her for the Britain’s Got Talent final, Lucy has not had time to visit her in Kirkby-in-Ashfield since then.
Maybe she doesn’t want to go back because it’s her mum’s fault for moving her to that part of Notts in the first place?
“I know!” she laughs.
“I don’t know what went through her mind.”
But she then adds: “As much as I wish I’d been brought up somewhere else, as she does, the reason I went through what I did was probably to get me to the point I’m at now. Would I have found singing? Would I have carried it on? Would I have that passion I have now to never give up?
“Had my dad not left and I’d still been living in Leicester, I’d not have found Cantamus and I certainly wouldn’t have been on Britain’s Got Talent.
“I firmly believe that there’s a path for everyone and everything happens for a reason.”
Lucy Kay will join Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on January 30. Tickets go on sale today at 10am priced from £19.50 to £38.50 and are available from the venue. Call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.
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