Britain’s Got Talent choirmaster Lloyd Macey ‘owes everything’ to Simon Cowell
Choirmaster Lloyd Macey on BGT at the audition stage where (Image: ITV/Talkback Thames)
Britain’s Got Talent choirmaster Lloyd Macey says he owes “everything” to Simon Cowell after finding fame on X Factor. The Welsh schoolteacher, 32, went on to manage a girl band and was a TV judge looking for a Eurovision hit, like a Welsh version of the music mogul.
Tonight he will be conducting The Glantaf Boys’ Choir in the ITV talent show’s semi-finals. Millions saw Lloyd and the choir’s rousing BGT audition of Never Enough from The Greatest Showman.
Head judge Simon told them: “You should be proud. I got quite emotional. This is just brilliant. This is what a great choir is all about, having fun, great song choices and a great leader.”
Lloyd on X Factor in 2017(Image: Dymond/Thames/Syco/Shutterstock)
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Many may have recognised Lloyd as he came fourth in the X Factor in the 2017 series won by boyband Rak-Su. He used the TV platform to embark on a music and stage career – and ended up doing some of the very things that Cowell himself has done.
He says: “Simon has been like a mentor to me. And because of him and X Factor, it gave me the confidence that I can achieve things and I can go for it. I don’t think I would have been as confident and believing in myself.
“The experiences I had helped me in terms of my career… radio work, TV work, judging Junior Eurovision, working with a band.”
Lloyd went on to look after a girl band called The Minis, writing two songs for them which they recorded. He signed up to be a TV judge on a talent show Search For A Star to pick a Welsh act for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2019.
And when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, he realised that his entertainment work might dry up so he trained to be a Welsh teacher. It was at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf secondary school in Cardiff that he decided to add both young and older members to the boys’ choir to get a bigger range of voices.
Choirmaster Lloyd Macey with his singers at the audition stage(Image: ITV/Talkback Thames)
Then he encouraged them to audition for BGT – and has been instrumental in mentoring them. However Lloyd claims none of this would have happened without X Factor. It turned him from a shy lad into a confident and self-assured young man, and now he wants to pay it forward by being just like Simon.
He says: “I think it’s amazing that we have programmes like this. They give people the opportunity, like the boys, to do something like this. I owe a lot – well, everything – that I’ve done in terms of the performing industry due to Simon and X Factor and the incredible people I’ve met.
“But the fact is, this means that now I can do this with the boys. I can do this programme, one of the biggest programmes in the world, with them. What’s really lovely is some of the pupils who are quite shy in the choir have now grown in confidence since it’s been on the telly.
“You know, it’s lovely seeing other children congratulating them, teachers congratulating them, and parents getting in touch and saying ‘My son is so happy. He’s really grown in confidence since doing all this’. And you know, you can’t ask for more than that really.”
Not surprisingly, the pupils have discovered his reality TV past. Lloyd adds: “Because of YouTube, they have seen me on X Factor but in the class the kids see Mr Macey!
“That’s why I always wear a blazer. Something smart. And if you are confident in front of them but not too strict then I think they respect that as well.”
Lloyd says if the choir wins the £250,000 cash prize, he would love to go on a world tour with them and even make a record. He says: “I think what would be really amazing would be to do an EP or an album. Record them – because, you know, 10 years down the line they’ll be older and then they can look back on this.”
Lloyd says although it has been nine years since he last saw Cowell, the TV judge is still as caring as ever. He says: “Little things like he asked how my grandmother was, how’s the family – and then straight away he made it about the boys and that was really important to me.”
Lloyd has to stay tight lipped about what track they have picked for tonight. He says: “All I can say is that it has got an emotional element to it. All I have said to the boys is ‘Enjoy it’.
* Britain’s Got Talent is on ITV tonight at the earlier time of 6pm.
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