School teacher Abbie Edwards has been crowned the winner of ITV singing contest Starstruck after performing as Adele. The aim of the show is for different teams each week to perform as their singing idols.
The winner from each team is then put through to the final, and Abbie was declared champion of the series tonight (Saturday April 8) after beating off competition from Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Frank Sinatra, Meatloaf, Sam Cooke and Sam Smith sound-alikes. Hosted by Olly Murs, the singers performed for judges Adam Lambert, Beverley Knight, Jason Manford and Shania Twain with the studio audience voting for their favourite.
Abbie performed a spine-tingling rendition of Adele's Someone Like You, bagging the £50,000 cash prize. The 27-year-old was in tears as Olly declared her the winner and she gave an emotional shout-out to her daughter Lacie who was proudly watching in the audience.
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@Truthfairy15 tweeted: "Abbie as Adele could go to Vegas and fill in she's that good!" And @Survivinthe20s praised: "Adele's at home watching thinking, this girl could cover me in Vegas for a few nights."
Chloe Stothers applauded: "So very pleased for Abbie she really deserved it! She looked and sounded like Adele and when she was talking she even sounded like Adele too! I wanted her to win and im glad she did." And @cannylad23 asked: "Was that not the real Adele?"
@Johnny_JI81 commented: "Congratulations, Abbie! Her version of Adele was a worthy winner." @xjackhunterx said: "I just love Abbie, I bet @Adele loves her." And @ShaneF_Official wrote: "Abbie really deserved to win she is outstanding as Adele!"
She said about Olly calling out her name: "I genuinely thought he was joking. I was looking around at everyone in complete shock.
"Seeing all those amazingly talented people standing next to me, I couldn’t even fathom that it was me who had won. It was completely bizarre, unbelievable, and euphoric all at once."
Incredibly, Abbie had never performed on stage before until Starstruck and had only done karaoke. She credits Starstruck for boosting her confidence after an "uncomfortably shy person."
"I decided to apply to prove to my friends that I couldn’t and wouldn’t get on TV," she said. "But then once I made it onto the show, I just wanted to prove to all the kids that I teach and especially to my daughter, Lacie, that you can do anything you want to and that if I can stand up there on that big stage and perform as Adele then you can do anything you want to."
She added: "Even when I was nervous or second guessing myself my daughter was the reason to step on that stage despite my nerves and self-doubt. If I can inspire my kid to do something like that and help other kids on their journey, then that’s all I wanted."
Asked if she had ever done anything like this before, she said: "No, never! I used to sing at school and try the odd bit of karaoke but I’d never sung on a proper stage before as an adult. I’m the most uncomfortably shy person.
"The first time I sang in front of my friends I had to do it hiding behind a cupboard. But being on Starstruck has given me a huge amount of self-confidence."
She added: "It was the first time I’d ever left Lacie and although it was hard and I missed her, it allowed me to remember who Abbie was. I feel that at 27 it was the right age for me to do something like this. I was ready to be heard and I have really found who I am and what I want to do."
Abbie says she now can’t go into Tesco without someone stopping her and asking about the show. She says modestly that performing on Starstruck is "as close as I could ever get to being a superstar."
And on singing as Adele, who has just announced that she has extended her Las Vegas residency, she said: "Once I see it back, I might only then believe that I did her justice."
Asked if Abbie will now do more singing after winning the show, she enthused: "One hundred percent! When I sing, I feel powerful. I felt like a duck out of water doing Starstruck but now I would love to be a tribute to Adele.
"I want to continue trying to share her message – that's the dream. I would never have had the confidence without the show, and I just wish I could do it all over again because I loved every second of it."
Starstruck is available to watch on ITVX
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