A rewind to Bath’s Olivia Lynes taking Britain’s Got Talent 2023 by storm

Britain’s Got Talent, created by music mogul Simon Cowell, has been wowing audiences across the UK since the franchise’s creation in 2007. The competition aired for the first time in June 2007, hosted by Ant & Dec, and it hasn’t looked back since.

It has been broadcast every year on ITV, drawing average viewing figures worth between six and ten million people nationwide. The third series of the Britain’s Got Talent final is said to have raked in the biggest audience of approximately 17.3 million people.

18 series and 277 episodes later, Britain’s Got Talent remains as successful as ever. It’s now firmly established in the heart of UK popular culture. The franchise isn’t just popular on television screens either, but the brand lives on in desktop and mobile screens among those who play casino games online. There is a branded Britain’s Got Talent video slot powered by the Megaways game engine that’s up there with other slot titles inspired by British shows like The Cube and Tipping Point.

Homegrown heroine shines on stage

The city of Bath waited several years for a homegrown product to hit the big time on the show, but the 2023 series saw an unlikely star born. Olivia Lynes, who hails from the Bath area, was a 2023 Britain’s Got Talent finalist at the age of just 11.

Lynes stole the hearts of the audience and the nation’s viewers with her heartwarming audition. The story goes that Lynes’ mother reached out to the show’s production team calling for someone to coax her daughter to consider auditioning for the competition. Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden was given the mission of enticing Olivia to meet the rest of the judges and sing as an audition. 

What followed next was a heartwarming rendition of Wicked’s Defying Gravity. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the end of her performance. The 2023 Britain’s Got Talent show was one of the first years to have a ‘Golden Buzzer’, which each judge could hit once during auditions to send a performer through directly to the live semi-finals. Holden opted to use her Golden Buzzer on Lynes, sending the audience into ecstasy once again.

Lynes was one of the most talked about contestants of the 2023 Britain’s Got Talent show. In the live semi-finals, Lynes opted to sing a song from Frozen II, Into The Unknown. The song was originally performed by Idina Menzel, who plays Elsa in the

Disney movie. Unsurprisingly, her performance was a hit and she secured a passage into the live final by finishing inside the top three alongside Viggo and John’s Boys.

In the live final, Lynes turned to Frozen’s soundtrack again to perform Let It Go, another hit by Idina Menzel. In the closing comments of the judges after her final performance, judge Alesha Dixon said Lynes was “living out her fairytale and her dream”.

Although Lynes didn’t go on to win the 2023 Britain’s Got Talent final, with that honour bestowed upon comedian Viggo Venn, she has since enjoyed an early career in the arts.

What’s Olivia Lynes getting up to these days?

Lynes’ first on-screen performance came in the 2023 short film written and directed by Barnaby Blackburn, Pylon. The 11-minute film featuring Ian Virgo and Tommy Finnegan as well as Lynes, sees her play the role of Sara. The short film achieved international recognition at Galway Film Fleadh, alongside the This is England and Show Me Shorts film festivals.

Lynes is also set to appear in a biographical drama, Hamnet, which is currently in post-production. The Chloe Zhao-directed story is based on the wife of William Shakespeare, whose plays have enchanted Bath Festivals through the years. The plot surrounds Agnes Shakespeare, who is forced to deal with the loss of her only son. The production is expected to air in November 2025.