Simon Cowell has revealed he is “rooting” for the Missing People Choir to go all the way on Britain’s Got Talent.
The group, made up of relatives and friends of people who have gone missing and backed by Kate McCann, will compete in the show’s live semi-final on Friday night.
The choir includes the sister of missing Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, the father of chef Claudia Lawrence, and Peter Boxell and Denise Horvath-Allan, whose children have both been missing for 28 years.
Speaking about this year’s competition on BBC Radio 2′s Steve Wright In The Afternoon show, Simon said: “I think there will be a lot of expectation on Missing People’s Choir.
“I do know they’ve got a great song and I know they got a big reaction but I think this is going to be a better performance.”
He added: “I’m rooting for them.”
The group is led by the Missing People charity and its first audition, which brought the judges to tears, was a performance of I Miss You, a song penned by Boxell which also includes lyrics written by schoolgirl Alice Gross, who was murdered in 2014 aged 14.
Mrs McCann, the mother of Madeleine McCann, is an ambassador for the charity.
Simon also spoke about the shock exit of teenage singer Sarah Ikumu on Wednesday night’s show.
The music mogul had pushed his golden buzzer in response to the 15-year-old’s opening audition and has now backed her to join a West End show to get more experience.
“She’s got a phenomenal voice, I think she’s too young at the moment to go into a recording contract,” he said.
He added the music industry needed to start thinking “much, much more carefully” about young children attempting to make it as musicians.
“What is our best career advice to them, and it’s not always to sign a record deal because they don’t always work out the way they want, it’s basically to say if singing is your career, we’ll give you advice now to make your career properly,” Simon said.
