George Sampson

George William Sampson (born 29 June 1993) is a street dancer from Warrington, England, and was the winner of the second series of Britain's Got Talent on 31 May 2008, aged 14. As the prize for the competition, he received £100,000 and performed at the 2008 Royal Variety Performance, staged at the London Palladium on 11 December 2008. Coming from a poor background, George had to dance on the streets in his home town in order to raise money to travel to London for auditions. He would often be seen in Manchester City Centre, attracting large crowds, performing on Market Street. After succeeding through the audition round, George then made it through to the semi-finals, which he very nearly missed by missing his train to London. He eventually reached London the morning of his semi-final. George's parents, Brian and Lesley, split up when George was 10; George lives with his mother, sister Rosie and his brother Luke while his other siblings, Chelsea and Emily, live with George's father. Simon Cowell initially planned to only release dance videos, but he wanted to do more. He asked the agent of Take That if he could get George to sing, but it turned out he already liked to sing from a young age. George's debut double a-side single titled Get Up on the Dance Floor/Headz Up was released on 24 November 2008, with the proceeds going to Great Ormond Street Hospital. After an early fault that meant the single couldn't be downloaded from iTunes for two days, the single finally debuted at number 30 in the UK Singles Chart and remained listed for 4 weeks.