He’s one of the judges on The Voice in the United Kingdom and singing legend Sir Tom Jones has shared a special moment with a contestant on the singing show after realising a beautiful connection.
Contestant Peter Donegan first took to the stage with a haunting performance of ‘Bless The Broken Road’ in the first week of auditions for the popular reality program. Like the local version of The Voice, judges on the UK version have their backs turned to the stage and hit their buzzer only if they like what they hear and if they want the musical act to progress on to the next round of the competition.
Alongside judges Jennifer Hudson, Will.i.am and Olly Murs, the ‘What’s New Pussycat’ singer could be seen fighting back tears as Peter beautifully sang his way through the song. Towards the end of the performance, the Welsh crooner hit his buzzer.
What Tom quickly discovered after chatting with the 35-year-old was that he was the son of one of his good friends, Lonnie Donegan. Lonnie was a singer, songwriter and musician who had a huge influence on British pop in the ‘60s.
In fact, he was dubbed the “King of Skiffle” and had a string of hits throughout his career. Sadly, he passed away in 2002. One of his biggest songs was the 1967 hit, ‘Never Gonna Fall in Love Again’. Fans of Tom will know this was also one of his biggest songs.
“Do you know the song that your father wrote for me?” Tom asked Peter. “Can we do it together?”
With cheers from the audience, the ‘Sex Bomb’ singer belted out the classic song from his chair. Peter sat behind the piano and played on stage. Halfway through the performance, an excited Tom stood up, much to the delight of the studio audience.
Shortly after the episode went to air, Sir Tom tweeted the special moment to his 577,000 Twitter followers.
He said: “A very special moment with my late great friend Lonnie Donegan’s son – the marvellously talented @peter_donegan ! Welcome to #TeamTom.”
Meanwhile, Peter also explained the special moment with his Twitter fans.
“So proud to perform my dad’s song with @RealSirTomJones,” he said. “A very emotional moment for me and I’m sure dad would have been proud.”
Fans also praised the beautiful moment.
One person wrote: “This was an absolutely incredible moment of TV.”
Another said: “I’m honoured to say I was there when this happened. And listening to it again now I was in tears. Absolutely beautiful.”
A third added: “This was spine tingling and brought tears to my eyes! What a moment.”
Below is the original performance by Tom that most people will remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vMx63ZCd88