Hollie Steel (born 1 July 1998) is a schoolgirl and performer from Huncoat, Lancashire, England. In 2009 at the age of ten she was one of ten finalists on the third series of the ITV reality show Britain's Got Talent. Her first audition drew mostly positive comments from all of the show's judges. In her second appearance during the semi-finals Steel forgot a word in her song, broke down in tears and could not finish the audition, but one of the programme's judges intervened and she was allowed to perform a second time. Steel advanced to the finals and finished in sixth place. She then toured the United Kingdom, making live performances with the series' other finalists in the summer of 2009. Steel first auditioned for Britain's Got Talent in April 2009. In her first televised appearance, she began her number ballet dancing to "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the musical My Fair Lady, then, as judge Simon Cowell started to reach for the red rejection buzzer, she began singing the song with an unexpectedly powerful voice. She received a standing ovation from the audience and the approval of all four judges. Piers Morgan told Steel, "We have seen a lot of children on our show over the past three series and I have never heard any of them sing as well as you do". Kelly Brook was in tears and called her performance, "beautiful and lovely". Media reports at the time claimed that Steel had referred to Cowell as a bully for critical comments he made after her first appearance on the show; however, a blog at a Lancashire newspaper's web site that was attributed to Steel and her mother denied that Steel had ever made such a comment. Commentators and mainstream media outlets speculated that she might defeat Susan Boyle, who had made an impression worldwide in the first show of the series. Over thirteen million viewers watched Steel's performance and, within one day of a video of her performance being posted on YouTube, over a million viewers had seen her worldwide. She was interviewed on US television via satellite link during NBC's Today show. During her second appearance in Britain's Got Talent in May, she succumbed to nerves, forgetting her words and breaking down mid-performance. After tearfully appealing for a second chance, but being denied by the producers, Simon Cowell intervened saying, "I don't care how we do it but we will find the time somewhere to let you audition again", and she was allowed to perform a second time. Her second attempt at "Edelweiss" went well and she was praised by the judges for being accomplished and brave in the trying circumstances. Piers Morgan described it as "one of the gutsiest things I've ever seen in my life", and Steel was chosen by all three judges to progress to the final in preference to Greg Pritchard. The incident caused numerous commentators to debate whether children of this age should be allowed to compete in a TV show in which contestants are under such high pressure. In the final, Steel performed the song Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom of the Opera. Her performance was trouble-free and well-received and the viewer voting resulted in her finishing in sixth place. She was assigned a manager to represent her — Steven Howard of TCB. During June and July of 2009, she appeared in Britain's Got Talent – The Live Tour 2009 with most of the other finalists from the third series. She was home tutored between rehearsals and the start of the tour. The rehearsals were held at the Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith. The tour opened at Birmingham, UK on 12 June 2009, and finished on 5 July 2009 at Bournemouth, UK. During the live stage shows, she performed solo and also in combination with other artists such as 2 Grand, with whom she performed Edelweiss in Newcastle.