It’s been 13 years since he sang his way to victory on Britain’s Got Talent – and, despite the ups and downs of fame, his life is something he could never have dreamed of.

“Absolutely not,” Jai McDowall, 37, tells the Mirror when asked if he’d ever thought he’d be where he is now over a decade on from applying for the show. “I didn’t really go in with a lot of expectations because I didn’t know the industry, I didn’t know how it all worked. You just see

your Harry Styles and your Taylor Swifts and Adeles and that level of fame and fortune and it’s almost unbelievable that something like that could happen [to you].”

While it might seem like Jai achieved overnight fame after winning the show, it was years in the making after he applied for The X Factor three times before his BGT appearance. On his third go, he managed to get round to the Boot Camp stage but didn’t progress any further, which he is ultimately glad about and says that it gave him a “taste” for singing as a career.

“It was very different because I’m actually quite shy and The X Factor it was a big singing competition – everybody there was a singer,” he explains. “That was the year that One Direction were in it. I actually saw Niall Horan kicking about playing the guitar and singing and he was

quite boisterous and because he was so young there was a lot of energy and I was freaking out. Inside I was like, ‘No!’ and he’s just chilled out. But there was quite a lot of the competition side of things because everybody was a singer. Because I got as far as Boot Camp, I was like, ‘I do want this, this is where I want to go, but I don’t know if X Factor is right for me.’”

Jai had joined some AmDram groups after being inspired by fellow Scots stars Paul Potts and Susan Boyle following their success, which spurred him into applying for BGT. “I thought, ‘Right, well they’ve done really well with the classical crossover, musical theatre type vibe, so I’ll go and do that. And thankfully, the rest is history!”

Jai McDowall can’t believe where he is now after his first audition ( 
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ITV)

He won BGT in June 2011 – nearly 13 years ago ( 
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Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)

His positive thinking came into play while he was performing on the show and Jai even envisioned that he would make the final alongside co-finalist Ronan Parke. “I know genuinely it does sound sort of out there but I envisioned the finale of that show and I knew it was going to be

me and Ronan. Not going to lie, I thought he was going to win,” Jai tells us. “That way I was like, ‘No, keep positive thoughts and keep going’ and genuinely I thought that really helped and it’s one of those things. Life is up and down – it’s a roller coaster and you can’t always be

positive all the time. I genuinely feel like if you can keep yourself in a better mental state with that you can – magic happens sometimes.”

But Jai did feel the pressure of winning the show and afterwards struggled with the sudden feeling of being famous. And, after doing one album with record label Sony, his contract was abruptly ended.

“I think because I went into it as someone who grew up in a small village of about 5,000 folk, where I knew everybody, [I didn’t realise] I was going into this big situation in London,” he explains. “It was quite a strange experience. I was doing a lot of press and then we went onto the

tour and it was massive and we had loads of screaming fans and all of that sort of stuff. I think inside I sort of freaked out a bit because I was like, ‘Oh god, this is bigger than I thought it would be, this is a bit scary! I don’t know if I’m ready for this!’ I was with Sony at the time and we

did the album and then they didn’t renew the contract so after that I was like, ‘Right, I need to take a step back because I don’t know how to navigate this new industry and this new job’.”

After his contract ended with Sony, Jai began songwriting and touring by himself in Scotland, which he said was nice to do and understand “how to do the job from the ground up”. “But it was a scary process I think to begin with just because it was so quick and it went from zero to

100 like overnight! I remember I walked down Oxford Street in London and builders were up scaffolding and were like, ‘Oh, are you that guy?’ And I was like, ‘Oh s***, I am that guy!’”

Jai said he ‘became that guy’ (
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Publicity Picture)DON’T MISS

He adds: “I don’t want to say the word ‘fame-chaser’, but that wasn’t my goal. I know now over the years you get to success to get to a certain level within the industry. It comes with fame and all sorts of different things and some of it’s good, some of it’s bad. I’m lucky I’ve never had any bad experiences with anyone but it is just sort of that thing.”

Jai reveals that the one time he was forced to give up singing was the hardest moment in his career and that he would never be able to do it by choice. “I genuinely know I couldn’t give singing up because the only time I had to was during Covid and it was terrible, genuinely the closest I’ve ever been to being really, really sad. And I genuinely missed it.

“There have been times where I’ve not been working as much as I’d like. But [Covid] was forced and we just couldn’t do our jobs – somebody told us you couldn’t do your job and it’s that way, nobody likes to be told ‘No.’ Nobody like to be told they can’t do something, especially when

it’s something that is part of who you are. I was like, I’m dying to get back to my job. It was quite sad – I had a lot of friends who left the industry and retrained as something else and now they’ve got a stable income and it’s less stressful.

“I went back to work during Covid as a support worker and although it was good, I wasn’t getting the same fulfilment and I knew that and before BGT I knew I loved my job and I could have continued with it but I hadn’t had the taste of what working for myself was or doing the job as my actual living. I have been very lucky that for 13 years that this is my job. I haven’t had to get another job.”

Jai most recently joined G4 , who finished second to Steve Brookstein on the first series of The X Factor, and admits the experience has been a “massive learning curve” for him. “I knew the guys before anyway through Jonathan [Ansell], so it wasn’t such a big change as it may be. I

worked with Jonathan a few times and I met Duncan [Sandilands] through him, so it’s a slightly easier transition. But it’s still one of those things – especially on stage because I’m used to being alone – and it’s funny to have three other guys singing different lines or different harmonies.

“I’ve definitely made a few mistakes in the last couple of weeks just because I’m not used to it! It’s been fun and the audiences are loving it and it’s been lovely to see all the nice comments about me joining as if I’ve always been there. They’ve been really nice and it’s been a great couple of weeks.”