Britain's Got Talent: Who is Leanne Mya? The Grenfell survivor who amazes the 2019 judges

18 May 2019, 12:57 | Updated: 18 May 2019, 22:48

Grenfell Tower survivor Leanne Mya performed 'Lay Me Down' by Sam Smith in the hopes of making it through to the Britain's Got Talent semi-finals.

The moving performance had hosts Ant & Dec in tears, an experience Leanne later called a "dream".

She easily managed four yeses from the judges, sailing through to the next round.

Leanne explained that singing helped her deal with the experience of escaping the Grenfell fire, which saw the deaths of 72 people in 2017.

Simon Cowell - who previously created a cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' to raise money for Grenfell survivors - told Leanne: “You should be very proud."

“It’s really important what you just did because it’s easy to forget something like that with everything that’s going on in the world.

“For everyone who lost their lives and had all this crap thrown at them, you’ve had the courage to come out here and pay tribute. You did something very special for them and for you. That’s what I call a moment with a capital ‘M’.”

LEANNE MYA - GRACE4GRENFELL

Leanne later told The Sun that she is still haunted by the screams of people trapped inside the burning building. The 31-year-old said: "I don’t think that’s anything anyone can ever prepare for or ever stop thinking about.

"People and innocent kids, screaming ‘Help us’ and because it was so distinct you could hear the moment the cries stopped. There was this deafening silence and you knew that person, that child, had gone."

However, singing helped her to cope with the tragedy, and having to live in emergency housing with her young son Malachi.

Leanne explained: "Singing has played an important role since the night of the fire - it’s helping me to process things. Being backstage on Britain's Got Talent felt like a dream. Up until the day I auditioned, I hadn’t processed that I was actually going to go through with it."