76-year-old Scottish grandma, Bette Reynolds, stole her slot in TV history when she rocked up to The Voice UK with a rap hit hidden up her cardigan sleeve. Bette’s jaw-dropping blind audition has already racked up more than 1.7 million views across its various YouTube uploads, and Music Man readers can check out the stunning moment in the viral video below!
With the self-admitted crossword addict having moved to Canada around 50 years ago, Bette returned to the UK to dazzle her homeland with her unpredictable talent. And we’re sure glad she did, with Bette’s blind audition becoming one of the most iconic moments in recent Voice UK history.
Bette reveals that she was a band singer back in her youth, meeting her husband Stuart when she was just 18 in a ‘love at first sight’ fairytale moment; marrying him the following year before putting her music on the back burner to prioritize starting a family. Tragically, Stuart passed away unexpectedly only a month before Bette’s audition.
Now, a full 58 years after her last performance, Bette is back to bravely mesmerize the next generations with her spotlight appearance on The Voice. Despite not gracing the stage since 1966, Bette tells producers with a gleaming smile, “At 76, you’re still a young thing, if it’s in your mind!”
With her three children watching on excitedly from the stage wings, the iconic intro of Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hip-hop hit “Rapper’s Delight” is unleashed, with Bette soon laying her A-class vocals over the track, without missing a single beat.
Her thick, Scottish accent only makes her performance ten times more charming as she breaks all expectations and instantly wins over the crowd.
Judge will.i.am smiles like a madman as double-judge team Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones try to suss out the age of their blind auditionee. But the suspense and surprise are too much for them to handle, as the McFly boys slam their chair-spinning buzzer just as Bette’s party track draws to a close.
Considering Bette was a musician before rap music was even invented, we can’t even imagine how this sweet grandma discovered her hip-hop skills, other than rapping along to her kitchen radio, perhaps.
But her audition is an instant hit, with will.i.am rushing on stage to give Bette a huge hug before telling her, “You’re the best!”
When Tom Jones discovers Bette’s age, the 84-year-old star can’t help but smile, impressed, commenting, “I thought it was a young person! I thought it was a little girl singing or something,” making the entire audience cackle.
Tom Fletcher amped up the praise, explaining, “We had to turn to see what was creating this amazing atmosphere in this room. Every person I was looking at out there had the biggest smile on their face. That is SOMETHING! You can’t learn that. That is something that you naturally have.”
Make sure you hang around till the very end of this clip, where Bette performs an impromptu live duet of The Black Eyed Peas’ smash hit “I Got A Feeling,” duetting with will.i.am himself!
