Popular Singer of 'Britain's Got Talent'

Calum Scott | Biography 2021

Launched His Debut Album 'Only Human' in 2018

• By Ashna Tamrakar
• Update : September 03, 2021

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Calum Scott is a British singer and songwriter, best known for his cover of Robyn Patrik Berger's hit song ‘Dancing on My Own’ he performed at Season 9 of Britain’s Got Talent auditions.

Who is Calum Scott?

Calum Scott participated in the 2015 Season of Britain’s Got Talent and established himself as one of the UK’s brightest musical stars. But, it was not his first endeavor in the entertainment industry. Scott had already won a talent competition sponsored by a local newspaper in 2013.

Scott’s version of ‘Dancing on My Own’ was released in April 2016. It was ranked number two on the UK Singles Chart and became the best-selling album of the summer in the UK. 

Scott released the single ‘You Are the Reason’ in 2017. It featured on his 2018 debut album, Only Human, which charted at number four in the United Kingdom. Later that year, he released a duet version of ‘You Are the Reason’ with Leona Lewis.

Early Life and Early Career

Calum Scott was born on 12 October 1988, to Kevin and Debbie, in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, England. He has a younger sister Jade. Scott began his career as a drummer before being inspired to sing by his sister Jade, a talented vocalist.

In 2013, she enrolled him in the local newspaper The Hull Daily Mail’s Star Search competition, and Scott won it. He then joined Maroon 4, a local Maroon 5 tribute band, and toured around the United Kingdom.

Scott then created a dance-pop duo, the Experiment with John McIntyre, another local lad, and released a single in 2014 called ‘Girl (You’re Beautiful).’ The pair appeared on Good Morning Britain and BBC Look North to perform the album but then split up later.

‘Britain’s Got Talent’

In 2015, both Scott and his sister auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent Season 9. Unfortunately, Jade was rejected at the audition stage but was ecstatic as she saw Scott nail his performance.

Scott managed to impress judge Simon Cowell so much with his stripped-down, piano-led rendition of Robyn Patrik Berger's ‘Dancing on My Own’ that the stern judge pushed the golden buzzer. Cowell hit the golden buzzer when he and all the judges—Amanda Holden, David Walliams, and Alesha Dixon—were giving standing ovations. The rare act from Simon sent Scott straight to the semis. 

After the big golden buzzer moment, Dixon exclaimed, “Calum, you completely sucked us all in. It was special and after what happened with your sister as well, I’m so happy for your family. This is your moment,” Holden said, praising him and acknowledging his sister Jade’s exit from the competition.

Further, Cowell appreciated Scott and said he was the most talented guy he had ever seen on the stage. He said, “I’ve never ever in all the years I’ve done this show heard a guy with the talent you’ve got. Seriously. And the version was sensational, and that shows to me you’re more than a singer, you’re an artist and that’s why you got that (the buzzer).”

Aftermath

After Britain’s Got Talent appearances, Scott’s Twitter followers grew from 400 to over 25,000. His audition video also received millions of views and became one of the most viewed BGT auditions on YouTube.

With his high, steady, and boy-next-door good looks, Scott soon became a fan favorite quickly progressed through the season. However, he was eliminated in the finale after a shaky performance, which he later blamed on nerves. Scott finished the season with the sixth position.

Even though he didn’t win the competition, Scott earned enough fan-base that made him quit his job as a recruitment manager at Hull City Council and pursue a career as a live performer. 

Subsequent Career

Scott self-released his cover of ‘Dancing on My Own’ on 15 April 2016. It was a sleeper hit, debuting at number 40 in the charts in May and climbing into the top 40. On 5 August, it was added to Radio 2’s C List and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It also received platinum in the UK in August 2016, after selling over 600,000 copies.

On 24 May 2016, Scott took to Twitter, revealing he had signed a record deal with Capitol Records.

On 16 September, the talented singer and Brazilian recording artist Ivete Sangalo launched the promotional single ‘Transformar’ as the official theme of the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games. 

He toured the United States in 2017 and released the hit single ‘You Are the Reason.’ Soon, Scott started working on his debut album, Only Human, in 2017 and launched it on 9 March 2018.

In early 2018, a duet version of ‘You Are the Reason’ was released in collaboration with Leona Lewis. The duo also performed it on The One Show in February 2018. The album’s fourth single, ‘What I Miss Most,’ was released in May 2018.

In October 2018, Scott launched his new single ‘No Matter What.’ After the release, Scott said,” ‘No Matter What’ is without question the most personal song I have ever written and the one I am most proud of. It’s a song born from loneliness, acceptance, and the heartbreaking but liberating tale of my coming out experience. What I love about this song is that it isn’t just limited to a story of sexual identity, but about the relationship between parent and child and acceptance as a whole. This song didn’t make my debut album because I simply wasn’t ready at that time to give it to the world.”

Sexuality and Expression via Songs

Scott openly revealed that he was gay in his interview with Attitude Magazine in 2016. He shared that he had opened up about his sexuality to his mother and the rest of the family at the age of 15 with the support of a gay buddy. After his revelation, his family and several close friends embraced him, but some of his close friends shunned him, leaving him broken, ashamed, and confused. 

But as he informed more people, he started feeling comfortable. However, on a larger scale, he was still not out. Although his immediate relatives and friends were aware, he was afraid to go any farther. Even his father was unknown about his sexual preference until he came into the entertainment industry. 

In a 2018 interaction with Honey, he said, “There was definitely a point in my songwriting where I was struggling to come to terms with my sexuality. I had press that was trying to look into my private life and start exploring past relationships. By this point, as of three or four years ago, my dad still didn’t know I was gay. So I was in the position that if I don’t speak to the press soon, and if my dad finds out through the media, it’s a really unfair way for him to find out about his child. I was just in a real predicament.”

According to Scott, he always felt that he would lose people if he talked about his sexuality because of the traumatic experience in his childhood.

In an interview with Gay Times, Scott said, “I had a lot of troubles with my sexuality growing up, and long story short, when I was in my early teens and I was trying to understand what it was I was going through, I confided in a group of my friends. I was abandoned for it at an early age.”

‘Only Human’

Scott started working on his debut album, Only Human, in 2017 and launched it on 9 March 2018. The debut album peaked at number one on the iTunes album list in 20 countries, selling over 1.5 million copies and accumulating over 2 billion combined plays in 2018.

The album featured the songs like ‘If Our Love Is Wrong,’ ‘Give Me Something,’ ‘Rhythm Inside,’ ‘You Are The Reason,’ ‘Come Back Home,’ ‘Stop Myself (Only Human),’ ‘Dancing On My Own,’ ‘Only You,’ ‘Won’t Let You Down,’ ‘What I Miss Most,’ ‘Hotel Room,’ ‘Good To You,’ ‘Not Dark Yet,’ and ‘Dancing On My Own (Tiësto Remix).’

‘If Our Love Is Wrong’

Scott’s 2018 song from the album Only Human titled ‘If Our Love is Wrong’ played a vital role in explaining the debate in his head about whether he should come out in the press or not as the artist. For him, the song was an argument he was having internally. 

“Eventually it came to a point where I was talking about it in a songwriting session, and it was like counselling. As I was talking about it, on reflection I was starting to think, ‘Actually, if me being gay is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.’ So it’s kind of an empowering song,” he said.

‘Hotel Room’

His other single, ‘Hotel Room’ from the Only Human album, was about falling in love with a straight guy who didn’t love him back. He revealed to Attitude in 2018 that he had a habit of falling for straight guys and his work was the biggest roadblock to dating. 

‘You Are The Reason’

It was one of the most famous tracks from his debut album, Only Human. In May 2019, the song reached number 10 on the US iTunes chart and number 7 on the Australian iTunes list.

He released the hit single ‘You Are the Reason’ on 17 November 2017 under the label of Capitol Records. In early 2018, a duet version of the song was released in collaboration with Leona Lewis. 

‘Dancing on My Own’

The original song ‘Dancing On My Own’ was sung by Swedish singer and songwriter Robyn. It was released as the first single from her fifth studio album, Body Talk Pt. 1 (2010), on 20 April 2010. Scott's version of the song was released on 15 April 2016. As of 5 August 2021, his version has received over 447million views, which is over seven times the view of the original song by Robyn which has 65 million views.

As of March 2018, his cover of ‘Dancing On My Own’ had sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK, reaching No. 2 on the Official Top 40 and even earning a Brit Awards nomination. It had been certified platinum in the United States and was a No. 2 smashes in Australia. 

It received mixed reviews from critics, with the bulk of music critics comparing it adversely to Robyn's original. “I suppose because I didn’t have any expectation of what the song would actually do, I think everything was a bit of a shock to me - how well it did, and also the criticism I faced.” Talking about the negative reviews to Build, he said in an interview with Huffington Post. “And that’s fine, you know, music is art and art is there to be appreciated and criticised.”

He initially sang the version in front of his mother and sister and they cried listening to it. In an interview with United by Pop, he revealed that he knew it was a no-brainer to get a tune that he loved so much and that appeared to resonate so strongly with others would get heard by as many listeners as possible.

‘No Matter What’

In October 2018, Scott launched his single ‘No Matter What.’ After the release, Scott said, " ‘No Matter What’ is without question the most personal song I have ever written and the one I am most proud of. It’s a song born from loneliness, acceptance, and the heartbreaking but liberating tale of my coming out experience. What I love about this song is that it isn’t just limited to a story of sexual identity, but about the relationship between parent and child and acceptance as a whole. This song didn’t make my debut album because I simply wasn’t ready at that time to give it to the world."

The track also holds a very personal and specific meaning for him about coming out to his mother about his sexuality. "I was terrified, I was sick, I was shaking, and I told her and she just said 'Calum I love you no matter what, I just want you to be happy, be who you are, don’t try to be anybody else,” he recalled speaking to Hits Studio in 2018.

Awards & Nominations 

In 2015, the singer was nominated for a National Reality TV Awards for Best Performance on a Reality TV Show for his golden buzzer performance in Britain's Got Talent. 

Scott was nominated at Brit Awards 2017 for the Best British Single of the Year for his song ‘Dancing on My Own.’ In 2018, he won the British LGBT Awards. British LGBT Award Guilty Pleasure.

Dating Preferences

He also explained how a relationship he had with a gentleman fell apart due to his work schedule and communication gap with the partner who couldn’t understand her industry. When asked if his busy work schedule hindered his dating life, he shared, “Yeah massively. I was just saying to my hair and makeup girl that I was dating a guy really soul to the earth guy. A painter and decorator. Very salt of the earth. Worked 9-5 and we were dating for a little bit but I knew I was going on a tour with Emilie Sande and that the album was being released the following year and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to spend the time with him and it got to a point where I had to tell him I’m going to be away and he didn’t really take that very well.”

He added, “He would be like, ‘Oh you haven’t checked your texts, messaged me back’. In a situation like this I wouldn’t be checking my phone. I’ve been doing this since 3pm today if I went straight to a show, I probably wouldn’t check my phone until tomorrow morning. I think because of my movement and the work that I’m doing, you’ve got to find someone who is understanding and it’s hard because people don’t know this industry from the outside.”

Still, Scott implied in the interview that he wanted to “find someone” outside of the industry. “But I maintain that I want to find someone very normal and down to earth and they say that people in the industry should date people in the industry but I’m a lad from Hull, I’m very northern that way and I kinda want to find someone very normal but it does hinder me. I even had a date in Australia, of all the places to find someone to date, is somebody 24 hours away on a plane, it’s tough. It’s really tough.”

Who is Calum Scott Dating?

Calum has dated both men and women in the past, including singer Sam smith, a painter/decorator in 2017 (relationship ended because he was busy in his career), and an unidentified “girlfriend” whom he claims to have separated after their relationship turned toxic.  

His Sister - Jade Scott

In a 2018 interview with Lorraine, Scott revealed that after his successful performance, things with his sister Jade were a little tense for some time. His sister also auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent show, but did not convince the judges and received four NOs for her performance.

He said, “Obviously I was coming home saying 'I've had a message from Ashton Kutcher, I've got a message from Neyo' and all this and she was like 'Oh right…'. So that was a bit tough." However, the two sorted out the things, bonded and grew even closer after that. Jade has also released her album titled ‘Dynamite.’

What is Calum Scott Doing Now?

In July 2021, Scott released his single ‘Biblical.’

‘Biblical’

Scott released his new track titled 'Biblical' in June 2021, which is about exploring infinite and immeasurable love. The song is taken from his upcoming album of the same name, which will be released later this year. It is also accompanied by a music video that featured a ballet dancer, a musician, and a bride and groom and was directed by Franklin & Marchetta.

In the trailer for the track, he said, “Love is everywhere; it transcends across everyone and everything,” adding a question, “How do you measure love if the love you feel for that person is immeasurable? It’s biblical proportions.”

The singer continued he wanted to make a song about unquantifiable quantities of love. According to him, 'Biblical,' sets the tone for that kind of love and he is very excited for the rest of the world to hear it.