Wolverhampton panto star Lucy Kay speaks out about overcoming bullying and abuse

The soprano's name was immediately bandied about with other talented female British classical singers, namely Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins.

The 27-year-old's singing career duly delivered, securing a record deal with Sony and when her debut album, Fantasia, shot to No1 album on the classical music charts.

She performed the national anthem for the 2014 Community Shield game at Wembley in front of 80,000 alongside one of the most iconic and influential performers in opera, Andrea Bocelli.

She topped off a remarkable year with a performance fit for a king, or royalty at least, singing in front of Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and their two daughters along with a long list of A-listers at a private dinner held at Windsor Castle in aid of Children in Crisis.

It has been a real rags to riches story for this year's Wolverhampton pantomime princess.

But it wasn't always glitz and glamour for the Leicester-born singer, who admits growing up was difficult without her father who left when she was a baby and bullies made much of her early life miserable.

She said: "Growing up was a struggle, my childhood wasn't one you'd hope for for your children.

"With my dad leaving when I was born, I took that hard and assumed it was my fault.

"Apparently as I was growing up, I was always asking strangers, men, if they were my dad, which for my mum was really embarrassing.

"From that when I used to make friends, I used to be more needy than most, people took advantage of that which set me up for being bullied.

"We moved to quite a poor area of Mansfield where I got bullied for being from a different area.

"Then when I started singing, as it was classical, I got bullied for that too.

"As well as the mental abuse, there was physical abuse, I have scars from cigarettes they put out on my chest.

"It got to a point in my life where I thought, I'm not sure if I want to be here and it's sad for a child to think like that."

While school bullies may have fulfilled the role of the cruel step-sisters as in Cinderella, there was a trio of strong women who stepped forward to play the role of the fairy godmother.

Her mother, Glenis, proved to be a supportive role throughout her youth and Lucy confesses it was her encouragement which got her to where she is.

Other contenders for the role include Pamela Cook, founder of Cantamus, the choir she would later join.

"She helped me financially and to get to uni, she unfortunately passed away before I went on Britain's Got Talent, she would have been proud.

"She took me under her wing and truly cared about me, I feel very fortunate to have known her, I wish she was here to see me now.

"She always told me I'd sing as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall one day and I didn't believe her, but literally two years later I was, it was an incredible moment, yet tinged with sadness."

Elaine Guy, also from the choir group, home-tutored Lucy free of charge to resit her GCSEs and take her A-levels so she'd get into music college. She'd failed her GCSEs fist time round down to the bullying she suffered.

She remember singing for the first time in front of her family at the age of six.

"I loved Charlotte Church, I sang Pie Jesu, behind a sofa and behind a curtain and I still told them not to look at me, I was really shy."

Lucy learnt the Latin song by ear, before any training, and soon singing became her escape and the pure emotion of opera is what drew Lucy in.

"I'm quite an emotional person, where the music took me, it was a release, a break from life.

"It helped me deal with the pain, I could sing through it, which although sounds depressing, that's how I dealt with it."

As a quiet child, Lucy quite literally found her voice at the age of seven joining Cantamus, in Mansfield, a local award-winning girls' choir.

Far from an overnight success, she dedicated 13 years singing with the highly respected choir, appearing on Songs of Praise, and was a soloist when the choir was named Olympic Champion Choir at the World Choir Olympics in China in 2006.

Following her home studying, she gained her A-levels and was offered an unconditional offer at the Royal Conservatoire at Scotland, a prestigious university which has an impressive list of alumni including James McAvoy, David Tennant and Kevin Spacey in the drama department as well as tenor David Hamilton and conductor Alexander Gibson CBE.

Just before graduating, Lucy's big break came when she appeared in front of 2,000 people and four intimidating judges on TV show Britain's Got Talent, with 11 million people watching at home.

An edited version of proceedings didn't show Lucy sing Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen, a song chosen by the BGT producers. It was a track she wasn't comfortable singing, resulting in Simon Cowell stopping her, telling it was a bad audition and asked her for another song.

What made the cut was her version of opera song Vissi d'arte, leaving the audience and judges stunned and a standing ovation followed.

She finished runner-up in the competition and then went on to sing on several successful tours proving hugely popular as a contemporary soprano, however this year Lucy took to the stage in a different form - as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, which proved popular at the Grand Theatre.

She said: "I'd never been trained in acting, but I've really enjoyed my roles so far.

"I've always loved musicals but never thought I'd be in one, musicals are where my heart is at right now.

"I was really nervous at Joseph but I got through it and I had good reviews fortunately - I had a week to learn everything."

As in all fairytale's, it's happily ever after for Lucy as she's currently playing Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and thriving in her latest role.

She said: "I love the cast in Aladdin, we all get on so well and we have a good laugh when things go wrong too, which is really important."

And Lucy is enjoying her second stay in Wolverhampton, after doing a bit of Christmas shopping in the city this week.

Enjoying life in musical theatre, Lucy hopes to go onto perform in London's West End and she also has set her sights on playing the role of Christine Daaé in Phantom of the Opera.

Expect more music too, as talks are ongoing for a big band album, which would see Lucy sing in a more traditional form.

Aladdin runs at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until January 22.

Tickets can be bought from the box office in person or by calling 01902 42 92 12 or online at grandtheatre.co.uk

By Doug Wootton