Wednesday, 4 March 2009

George Sampson

The Britain's Got Talent winner became an instant star with his Singin' In The Rain routine

Name George Sampson

Birth name George William Sampson

Date of birth 29 June 1993

Star sign Cancer

Birthplace Warrington, Cheshire, UK

Height 5ft 3in (and growing fast)

Eye colour Blue

Marriages None

Children None

Biography

George Sampson shot to fame in the UK when, aged just 14, he was crowned winner of the 2008 series of Britain's Got Talent.

Born in Warrington, Cheshire, George's parents Brian and Lesley split up when he was 10 and, with money short in the family, he had to dance on the streets of his home town to raise the funds to travel to London for auditions for the ITV1 talent show.

In 2007, he took part in auditions for the first round of the programme, but, despite judge Simon Cowell rooting for him, he failed to make the semi-final stage.

But the following year, his breakdancing performance to Mint Royale's remix of Singin' In The Rain, complete with an artificial rain machine onstage, wowed the judges and a TV audience of 13.1million viewers, winning George £100,000 as well as the opportunity to appear at the Royal Variety Performance in December 2008.

George's performance was all the more remarkable given the fact that he suffers from Scheuermann's disease, which causes curvature of the spine. The rare disorder also left him blind in his right eye for two months from Christmas 2007.

Capitalising on his Britain's Got Talent success, George quickly signed a deal, reportedly worth £1million, to become the face of a new NatWest bank account in June 2008 and in August of the same year he appeared in the West End show Into The Hoods.

A brief foray into music followed when George released double A-side single Get Up On The Dance Floor/Headz Up in November 2008. After a technical fault that meant it couldn't be downloaded from iTunes for two days, the track finally debuted at a lowly No 30 in the single chart. A separate dance video called Access 2 All Areas was well received, however, topping the DVD charts on release in December 2008. 

Despite several high profile gigs - including designing a plate for Blue Peter's Mission Nutrition appeal - at the start of the year, the talented teen parted ways with Simon Cowell's Syco label in September 2009, a decision that was reportedly down to the failure of his musical projects.  

To make matters worse, George was evicted from his London flat following complaints of anti-social behaviour from neighbours in the same month and he later claimed locals in his home town of Warrington turned on him after he moved to the capital.

He has since bounced back and landed a prominent role in a British feature film called Streetdance 3D, alongside fellow Britain's Got Talent acts Diversity and Flawless. George is also a patron of the annual charity event Dance Aid. 

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