Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall has spoken about the difficulties he faced after the show (Picture: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Sh)
Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall has revealed he was facing bankruptcy just a few years after winning the £100,000 prize.
In 2011, the Scottish singer–songwriter won the fifth season of the ITV talent show, taking home £100,000 and being signed to Syco Music, as well as performing at that year’s Royal Variety Performance.
However, the poor sales of his debut album saw him dropped by the record label and things quickly took a turn.
The performer has said that while he has ‘done OK’ for himself and is still working in music more than a decade on, there was ‘definitely a period where it took a dramatic drop’.
‘Finances, work, all of that stuff took a very big dive to a point where I did actually think about bankruptcy,’ he said.
‘I didn’t do it because, thankfully, I’ve got a brilliant support network.
The singer won the ITV talent series in 2011 (Picture: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)
‘But I did get to a point where I was like, “Is this it, is this over?”,’ he added when speaking to The Sun.
Explaining what happened, Jai said he ‘signed with a few people in Scotland and made some bad choices, spent loads of money’.
Despite being ‘asset rich’, he was ‘cash poor’ and ended up moving in with his parents.
‘That took a long time and a lot of grit and determination for me to get back out of that,’ he added.
Reflecting on being dropped in 2012, Jai said it was still something ‘difficult to deal with’, saying it led to ‘such a tumultuous time’, which he didn’t deal very well with.
During and after his time on BGT, Jai also faced severe criticism from Simon Cowell, who once said he wasn’t a ‘genuine star’.
‘It will sound awful my slagging him off, but I was disappointed with Jai. You want to find someone who is a star all over the world and who has got a long career,’ he said.
‘With respect to him, he wasn’t one of our best ones,’ Cowell added. ‘He would make a good living in theatre and is talented, but he wasn’t what I was looking for.’
Jai, a former care worker from Ayrshire, later received an apology from Simon when competing on Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions in 2019.
Last year he joined the vocal troupe G4, replacing original member Lewis Raines.
The group recently released their latest album 20 and are currently touring around the UK.
Britain’s Got Talent continues Sunday at 7.40pm on ITV1.
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