The Hawkstone Farmers' Choir has reached the live final of Britain's Got Talent after winning the audience vote in its semi-final, setting up a prime-time performance on Saturday, May 30. The 30-strong group of farmers from across the UK will now sing on ITV1 and ITVX from 7pm, with viewers able to vote again during the live show.
The run to the final has already drawn support from deep inside the industry it represents. Farmers Guardian produced a special video bringing messages of encouragement from some of agriculture's biggest names, a sign of how far the choir's story has travelled beyond the talent show stage and into farming's own corners of public pride. For the group, the next step is simple and immediate: perform again, and hope enough people back them in the official ITV Vote before the window closes.
That momentum was built in the semi-final, where the choir sang Pompeii by Bastille and sailed through after the audience vote. Amanda Holden and KSI both gave the group standing ovations, while Holden had already backed them early in the competition with her golden buzzer. KSI said the whole of the UK knows how important each and every one of them is and called it one of the best choir acts he had ever heard.
Ben Brooke, an arable farmer from March in Cambridgeshire, said he could not believe the choir had made it this far and thanked everyone who voted for them. “Who would have thought a load of farmers would get to the final of Britain's Got Talent,” he said, sounding as surprised as anyone watching the result land in real time.
Simon Cowell also praised the performance, saying he really liked the song and loved what the choir stood for, but added that the only downside was seeing Jeremy Clarkson's smug face. It was the sort of line that cut through the usual talent-show applause and gave the moment a bit of bite. The joke landed because the choir's appeal is not just musical; it has become a small cultural event, pulled along by farming loyalty and a wider audience that appears to have taken to the group.
Katryna Shell, a Northumberland farmer in the choir, said the result was unbelievable and that the group still had “the final to go” and needed one more vote. That is the point now: the choir has already done the hard part by getting there, and the live final will decide whether the story ends with a standing ovation or a win, with viewers able to register, vote online through ITV Vote and use up to five free votes per registered mobile number during the programme.
