The Hawkstone Farmers' Choir have won the hearts and minds of the nation and shone a spotlight on rural isolation and mental health.
Simon Gwilliam, the choir's musical director, from Corsham in Wiltshire, described the response from the public as 'incredible' and said he was proud the choir stayed true to its roots by singing the original song, 'This is Home'.
"It is the first original song to win the competition," he told Farmers Guardian.
"It was a huge risk because I think after Bastille's ‘Pompeii' and Elbow's ‘One Day Like This' people were probably expecting some Coldplay ‘Fix You' but we wanted to get our message across, of home and our pride in it. We thought if we win then great, and if we don't then at least we have got our message across."
Jeremy Clarkson
Simon was drafted in by Jeremy Clarkson, who originally brought the choir together to sing on the adverts for his Hawkstone drinks brand.
"It wasn't Jeremy's idea to name them the Hawkstone Farmers' Choir, we did that out of respect for Jeremy and everything he's done for the farming community."
Simon, who was brought up on his family's farm in the Forest of Dean, said: "When the choir first heard the song they all started crying and said, 'this is the song we'll sing in the final'.
Britain's Got Talent
"It goes long and it doesn't have a big moment at the end so we had to think about how we create that moment and get people to stand up and also how it all looks on the Britain's Got Talent stage.
"We have a Welsh Tenor who is called ‘Big Village' and I had a thought to write him a solo to make an epic ending and it paid off!"
The choir won with more than double the votes of second place and have truly captured the hearts of the nation while also shining a light on the issues of rural isolation and mental health.
Simon added: "It was like England winning the World Cup, the response has been phenomenal and we are so grateful. For people in farming seeing those scenes of the barns and pubs full of people standing up and cheering us on, those who have said they love us and back us – that is a powerful thing."
