'˜Amazing' Mia makes next round of The Voice

Luton’s Mia Sylvester was back on The Voice – BBC1’s answer to The X Factor – on Saturday. Despite being rejected 12 months ago by the judges, Mia bravely decided to give the show another crack.

The 28-year-old successfully negotiated preliminary producer auditions (which aren’t broadcast) featuring 50,000 hopefuls to get on the show again.

Although she was knocked out at the same blind audition stage last year, Mia had better luck second time around.

The Limbury resident, who got to the latter Boot Camp stage of The X Factor in 2012, was shown performing Ain’t No Way by Aretha Franklin in the pre-recorded programme.

For those who don’t watch the The Voice, the twist comes with the fact that the judges listen to the auditions with their back to the singers, so the contestants are only rated on their vocal talent and not by their appearance or overall performance.

If they like what they hear then the coaches press their button and their chair spins round so they can see the singer who they want to take through to the next round.

Mia, who admitted to being a bag of nerves last year, said: “It wasn’t as bad this time... until just before I went on. I thought ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ Then from being as cool as a cucumber I could hear the crowd roaring when I was in the green room and it became scary.

“It was a similar scenario to last time. I was the last person up on the night. At that stage the judges tend to be selective as they’ve not got many spaces left on their team.”

But she needn’t have worried as judge Ricky Wilson span his chair quite early on in the song to secure her progress to the Battle Stage of the contest in a few weeks time.

Fellow judges will.i.am, Boy George and Paloma Faith were also full of praise for her efforts, despite not turning their chairs.

Paloma said: “I thought that was exceptional and I think you are definitely a contender to go a very far in this competition.”

Boy George said: “You’ve got an amazing voice. You have got such a powerful voice.”

Ricky added: “You sang our socks off!”.

The former Lea Manor High School pupil returned to work as an electrician after her 2015 rejection because she “wanted to be realistic and to crack on with the real world”, and has been promoted this year.