British Singer Calum Scott Tells Jean Danker How He Was “Terrified For His Life” After Seeing People "Run Down The Street” For A Selfie With Him - 8days Skip to main content

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British Singer Calum Scott Tells Jean Danker How He Was “Terrified For His Life” After Seeing People "Run Down The Street” For A Selfie With Him

The singer, who famously received a golden buzzer from Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent in 2015, sat down with the Class 95 jock for her R U Okay? podcast. There, he shared about his crazy-viral (372 million views and counting!) audition video and how he adjusted to life in the spotlight.

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It’s the last episode of the second season of Jean Danker’s podcast, R U Okay?, and they’re closing things out with a bang.

Or well, a golden buzzer-worthy episode. After all, this episode’s guest is British singer Calum Scott.

The singer shot to fame in 2015 after his audition for Britain’s Got Talent netted him a coveted golden buzzer from the notoriously hard-to-impress Simon Cowell.

Though Calum did not go on to win that season of Britain’s Got Talent (he ended up in sixth place), the 34-year-old’s audition video went on to become one of the most watched auditions in the show’s history, with 372 million views.

That’s 70 times Singapore’s population, by the way.

But back to the podcast. Speaking to Jean, Calum shared that his audition was fuelled by emotions, after seeing his sister, who auditioned just before him, reduced to tears after failing to make it through.

“My sister didn't get through, and that broke my heart. And then, [there was] Simon [Cowell], who, in that moment, I hated, 'cos he made my sister cry. [But] I also wanted to impress him, it was a weird concoction of emotions,” Calum said.

The singer went on to confirm that nothing was staged for his audition, which he described as something that changed his life.

He revealed that before his audition aired on television, he made a post on his Facebook, telling his friends that he was going to be on Britain’s Got Talent that night.

"I got 3 likes, one of them was my mum. And then literally, as soon as the audition went on TV, thousands. just thousands [of likes and comments],” Calum said.

Watch the video below for the full conversation. Our story continues below.

The singer, who used to work in HR, went on to share that it was initially quite hard for him to accept his fame.

"It's been hard for me to accept that, you know, people wanting to run down the streets to take pictures with me,” he said.

But over the years, he’s slowly begun to get better at dealing with his fame, with Calum joking: "I'm not as terrified for my life, when people run down the street [to take pictures with me]”.

“[After all], I owe it to them. I owe everything to my fans,” he said.

Healing through music.

Calum also spoke about the inspiration behind ‘Bridges’, the title track of his second studio album. He shared that he used to be a “very troubled young man”, and that he had become very isolated and lonely as a result.

“[The song] talks very frankly about a time when I was contemplating not being able to be here anymore, and it’s a tough talking point, but writing about that journey really helped me to deal with a lot of the pain and darkness,” he said, adding:“In some ways, I was kind of grateful ‘cos I’ve been able to produce something beautiful out of that pain.”

The singer went on to share that he’s received many messages from fans who shared that the message behind the song really spoke to them.

"As a artist, as a songwriter, as a human being, it brings me a lot of pride and honour to have that kind of positive impact on somebody. It just means the world,” he said.

Catch Season 1 of R U Okay? on meWATCH here. Watch the full video below to find out how Calum managed to get out of his quarantine funk and get his songwriting groove back.

Photos: R U Okay/YouTube

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