Kate McCann’s Missing People Choir brings Britain’s Got Talent judges to tears with heartbreaking secret audition
Bosses have tipped choir as potential winner of the show after performing tear jerking song I Miss You
KATE McCann is part of a heartbreaking bid to win Britain’s Got Talent by families searching for lost loved ones.
The Missing People Choir, which includes chef Claudia Lawrence’s dad Peter, reduced onlookers to tears during secret auditions.
Madeleine’s mum Kate, 48, is choir ambassador and may get more heavily involved if they progress to the live shows, sources say.
They performed the tear-jerking song I Miss You on stage on Sunday — and were immediately tipped as possible BGT winners.
It includes the lyrics: “I never thought I’d be without you.
"I always thought you’d be here safe with me.
"Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up to find you.”
An audience member in London said: “Images of some of the missing people they were linked to also flashed up on the screen which had everyone in tears.
'I MISS YOU' LYRICS
‘I never thought I’d be without you.
I always thought you’d be here safe with me.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up to find you...’
“Judges Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon were particularly moved.
“Amanda said they were an inspiration.
"The choir said they had only performed together about seven times.
"You could tell in their voices how much it means to them all.”
The performance is expected to be shown on ITV in May, marking exactly ten years since Madeleine went missing from Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
The retired solicitor, 75, said he was “hugely disappointed and depressed”.
But he vowed never to give up looking for Claudia, who vanished on her way to work at the University of York in 2009.
Dad Peter Boxell wrote I Miss You about his son Lee who vanished in Sutton, South London, in 1988.
A BGT source said: “Their story is unbelievably moving so it’s certain to capture the hearts of the nation.
It’s ten years since Maddie went missing so if they got through to the live shows it’s possible Kate will want to be involved.”
Today also marks the 22nd anniversary of missing Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, whose sister Rachel Elias is in the choir.
He mysteriously vanished from a London hotel on February 1, 1995, on the eve of the band’s US tour. When his car was found abandoned near the Severn Bridge a fortnight later, many assumed he had taken his own life.
His body was never found but he was legally presumed dead in 2008.
BGT boss Simon Cowell, 57, has previously urged fans to back the choir’s charity, Missing People.
Families sing for lost loved ones
Madeleine McCann
She was three.
Her whereabouts remain unknown despite a huge search.
Claudia Lawrence
Chef Claudia, 35, was reported missing on March 19, 2009, after failing to turn up for work in York.
Dad Peter has made appeals for information.
Police, who suspect murder, have found no body.
Lee Boxell
Cops believe Lee, 15, was killed after disappearing en route to watch Charlton play football in 1988 but have never charged anyone.
Luke Durbin
Luke became one of UK’s highest-profile missing people when he vanished, aged 19, after a night out with pals in Ipswich in May, 2006.
Sandra Hall
The body of Sandra, 56, was found after a four-week hunt in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, in 2013.
Police said the death was not suspicious.
Lucia Hawkins
Lucia went missing in 2009 in Perugia, Italy.
She was aged 42.
Sister Violeta said the choir helped her “deal with my sense of loss”.
Charles Horvath
Charles was 21, when he vanished hitchhiking in Canada, in 1989.
Mum Denise has visited British Columbia regularly to look for him.
Quentin Godwin
Just 18 when he vanished on way to work in West Auckland, New Zealand, in 1992.
An inquest in 2014 concluded Quentin was dead.