Andrea Begley

Andrea Begley is a singer-songwriter from Pomeroy, Northern Ireland, who is most notable for winning the second series of the BBC talent search The Voice UK, beating the favourite to win, Leah McFall.

She is the niece of Irish country music singer Philomena Begley.

Having grown up performing in all-Ireland fleadhanna (Irish dance and music festivals) and singing competitions, Begley began songwriting and performing in open mic and other events in Belfast following completion of a law degree, in 2008.

In 2012, she took part in the pilot episode of RTE 2 song-writing competition show, The Hit, with her original composition The Message being selected by producer Steve Lillywhite for the final eight.

Andrea Begley auditioned for The Voice UK, with The Script's Danny O'Donoghue choosing her for his team.

After being crowned the winner, she was signed to Capitol Records and moved to London to record her debut album.

Her winning single, a cover of "My Immortal" by Evanescence, entered the UK Singles Chart at number 75 that week.

The single then went on to peak to number 30 on UK Singles Chart and number 70 on the Irish Singles Chart.

Her debut studio album The Message was released on 21 October 2013.

On 21 October 2013 Begley released her debut studio album The Message, which includes "My Immortal", her winning single from The Voice UK, and "Dancing in the Dark".

On 23 October 2013 the album was at number 10 on The Official Chart Update.

On 24 October 2013 the album entered the Irish Albums Chart at number 61.

On 27 October 2013 the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number 7.

Her cover of A-ha's "Take On Me" was uploaded to YouTube by Shane O'Connor, who combined it with animation by Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques students Camille Chaiz, Hugo Jean, Juliette Jourdan, Marie Pillier, and Kevin Roger to create a spoof version of a John Lewis ad.

Begley's autobiography, "I Didn't See That Coming", was published by BBC Books in October 2013.

Of the title, Begley said, "I was conscious with the book I wanted to give it a tongue-in-cheek title ... For me, I think the most important thing is making people comfortable with [my visual impairment], and I think the more comfortable I am with it and the more I can sort of, you know, make a bit of a joke and have a bit of a laugh with it I think makes other people comfortable with it."

In 2014, Begley moved back to Ireland and has continued to tour, including two Irish tours with aunt Philomena Begley, in 2018 and 2019.

She has released a number of singles independently, with her second studio album, "Soul of a Songbird", being released on 6 December 2019.

Begley is partially sighted as a result of glaucoma, which she developed at the age of 5 following a diagnosis of juvenile arthritis at age 3 and a half.

Since then she has had around 23 operations, leaving her with about 10 per cent vision.

From the age of 19, she has volunteered with the Royal National Institute of Blind people, and is currently chair of the RNIB network committee in Northern Ireland.

She is a motivational speaker, delivering talks on her own experiences of sight loss and issues around visual impairment and disability to organisations and businesses across the UK and Ireland.

The victory of Begley in The Voice raised the ire of competing coach will.i.am, who stormed off the set at the time her victory was announced.

He took to Twitter to express his outrage, saying "You should feel the audiences vibration in the room tonight after the publics vote…its #unexplainable…so sad…perplexed Andrea is amazing…dontGETmeWRONG…but we know who has the incredible voice".

Begley expressed understanding at his disappointment, saying "Will spoke to me and he wishes me well, but obviously everybody wants their act to win. But at the end of the day, the audience voted me, so that's it."

In response to online criticism focused on Andrea's disability, members of the public and spokespersons for disability charities spoke out in support of Begley.

Rosaleen Dempsey, children and youth services manager for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Northern Ireland, of which Begley is a committee member, told the Belfast Telegraph: "We've all seen the disparaging remarks about Andrea's sensational win on Saturday night, but the fact remains, she received the most votes because the majority of voters loved her voice. RNIB NI would like to congratulate Andrea and we're confident that with her fabulous voice and tenacious personality, she will go far."

A spokeswoman for Disability Action said, "Andrea has demonstrated her huge talent over the past number of weeks and we wish her every success in the future. Anyone commenting negatively in relation to Andrea's disability should think about the very positive attitude that Andrea has and deal with their own prejudices."