Jeremy Clarkson’s farming choir leave BGT judges in tears as Amanda Holden hits Golden Buzzer
The Britain’s Got Talent stage was awash with emotion on Friday night when Jeremy Clarkson’s farming choir stole the spotlight and earned a Golden Buzzer from judge Amanda Holden.
The Hawkstone Farmer’s Choir, made up of rural workers more used to early mornings than standing ovations, delivered a heartfelt performance that left the judges visibly moved.
Tears flowed across the panel and among the audience — and in a moment that sealed their fate, Amanda, 55, reached for the coveted Golden Buzzer, sending the choir straight through to the live semi-finals.
The group of 32 farmers and agricultural workers from around the country were initially brought together by Jeremy Clarkson and have been performing together since 2024.
The music collective – who range in age from 27 to 74 – performed a harmonious rendition of the uplifiting anthem ‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow.
Amanda Holden said: ‘As you started, I completely welled up. I felt so much power. I love the whole community. I love how you’ve all got together and work your a**es off
‘You work so hard every single day. You absolutely smashed it and I can’t wait to see what you do in the semi-finals. Congratulations.’
Guest judge Stacey Solomon added: ‘I don’t think anyone will understand the power of a choir unless they’ve been in a choir.
‘It’s such an incredible space to release and just letting it go. I’m so grateful that I got to experience that in real life, so thank you and congrats.’
Fellow judge Alesha Dixon said: ‘Music is so powerful, it’s like therapy. And you could really feel that. It sounded beautiful.’
KSI, said added: ‘Wow! Talk about multi-talented. Farming and then singing. Honestly, it felt like you belonged there. Congratulations and we’ll see you soon.’
The Hawkstone Farmers Choir will advance to the live semi-finals as they compete for the £250,000 prize and a coveted place at this year’s Royal Variety Performance.
Jeremy, 65, took to his Instagram page with an emotional clip saying how proud he was of the choir and wrote: ‘So happy for @thehawkstonefarmerschoir.’
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I wasn’t surprised to see Amanda moved to tears by the choir’s performance at their audition, because I’ve known for a while now that you can plough soil and shovel dung all day and still have a sweet, sweet voice.
‘To see the choir go from a half-formed idea to a musical phenomenon performing on national TV fills me with more pride than I can say and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for them in the semi-finals.
‘I reckon you’ll hear cheers of support from every other farm in the land too.’
Before their performance, choir member Katryna Shell told the judges and the crowd at Birmingham’s Hippodrome: ‘Jeremy Clarkson did a thing… Jeremy brought us together to sing, and it’s just really been amazing for us all.’
Katryna continued: ‘Every single one of us is in agriculture in some way or another. This isn’t our day jobs; we’re usually out in the fields.
‘We work by ourselves day in and day out, sometime 16, 17 hours a day. This has brought us together.
‘We’re not singers by nature. It’s brought us as a family – we have one thing that unites us and that is farming. We love what we do but it can be incredibly hard: really lonely, very isolating. To do this all together, it’s meant the world to us.’
Later on after their astonishing performance, Northumberland-born Kathryna added: ‘The choir has turned into something so much more than singing… We have come together as a community, something I didn’t even anticipate.
‘The choir is filled with all sorts of people with varying ages, singing experience, parts of the country but we all have farming linking us together – it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.’