An Edinburgh schoolgirl singer who wowed the star coaches on The Voice Kids UK, now hopes to form a girl group with fellow contestants.
Elyssa Tait, 13, stunned judges Pixie Lott, Will.i.am, Ronan Keating and Danny Jones with her rendition of Ella Henderson’s Everything I Didn’t Say in the blind audition stage.
She won the hearts of viewers with her tears of joy as she opted to join Pixie’s team, but she narrowly missed out in Saturday night’s ITV series finale.
Elyssa hailed eventual winners, 11-year old identical twins Shanice and Andrea from Leicester, but insisted she had loved her own taste of fame.
And the Beyoncé fan said she would love to follow in the footsteps of her idol and be in a girl group like Destiny’s Child with her friends from Team Pixie, including Martha, 14, from Aberdeen, and Liverpool pair Tiara-Leigh, 13, and Hayla, 12 .
The foursome won huge praise from the star coaches after they sang together a modern version of Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music for Saturday night’s “battle” stage.
Host Emma Willis asked: “Can we keep them all together?”
Pixie, who called the group “my ultimate girl gang”, replied: “I know, I would love that”, adding: “I’m so proud of you girls”.
McFly star Jones gushed: “Pixie, you have an amazing team there — that was incredible. They’d be a sick group, you know”.
Boyzone singer Keating said: “It felt like I was witnessing the beginning of something massive.”
And Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am told the girls: “You guys were really, really awesome. Each individual sang their part as solos but came together at the end. That was really, really great.”
Elyssa said: “We grew so close. We had friendship bracelets that we made backstage and we’d be running around our hotel at one o’ clock in the morning being crazy and just having fun.
“We still see each other and we message and call each other all the time.
“On the show, someone said we were a ‘ready-made girl group’. Because we were two Scots and two from Liverpool, we became known backstage as ‘Scots and Scouse’.
“Working together was so much fun so it would be great to be a girl group.”
Elyssa, whose grandparents on her mum’s side were opera singers, made her first public performance aged nine, busking on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. She has also starred in youth productions of shows like Annie.
She was contacted by The Voice after a YouTube video of her singing Billie Eilish’s Bond theme No Time To Die won fans online.
Elyssa, who had auditioned for The Voice Kids twice before, saw off competition from an estimated 60,000 other young hopefuls to make it through to the televised blind auditions in front of the four celebrity coaches.
She was one of just 16 kids who made it into Saturday night’s TV finale.
Pixie praised Elyssa as “my songbird”. Recalling the Scot’s blind audition, she added: “I could feel the emotion. You don’t always get that when you’re listening to such young voices. Then when we turned around she got emotional and it was beautiful because she has such a passion.”
Elyssa said: “I was determined to get on The Voice because it’s such a big programme for kids. In the blind audition I was really nervous backstage because it was the biggest thing I’d ever done.
“When I started to sing I just hoped that one of the judges would turn around, so for Pixie and Danny to both turn was amazing.
“Pixie gave me lots of great tips and was so nice with me and all the girls in our team. I became close with everyone and I was happy for Shanice and Andrea. Everyone was congratulating each other.
“I’ve had the time of my life.”
Elyssa is now planning to busk with some of her new The Voice Kids pals during the Edinburgh Festival next month and the four girls have already been invited by Pixie to visit her performing arts academy in Chelmsford, Essex.
She has also kept in touch with The Voice Kids UK vocal coach Jai Ramage, who also works with The Vamps.
She added: “The whole experience has given me a glimpse of what it must be like to be in the music industry. It’s boosted my confidence so I feel I can take on any challenge now.”
Parents Dougie, 51 and Dominique, 53, spoke of their pride in their daughter’s achievement.
Dougie said: “In the blind audition, when we heard one chair turn, Dominique and I started jumping up and down and cuddling each other. The rest was a blur.
“Elyssa did amazingly well and we hope this offers her a good platform because she’s worked really hard, but there were a lot of deserving singers.”
Dominique added: “I was watching Elyssa living out her dream and what it must be like to be a pop star.”
