Britain's Got Talent winner Jai McDowell reveals he was on the brink of bankruptcy after winning ITV talent show

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Scottish singer Jai McDowell has revealed that his career “went south” after winning Britain’s Got Talent in 2011.

Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowell has revealed that he was left on the brink of bankruptcy after winning the ITV talent show.

The Scottish singer won the competition in 2011, netting himself a £100,000 prize after performing on the show with Jai saying that his experience on the show “was great”. However, he told The Sun that his career “went south” shortly after around eight months after appearing on the show.

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Jai said: “My experience of BGT was great. Afterwards, for the first year, obviously you get all the work and all the good things. And that’s when it starts to go south.

“I had about eight months and then Sony didn’t renew my one-album deal and it’s still quite a difficult thing to deal with. I went from a normal guy who wasn’t in the industry, to then being on the telly. People know your name before you know theirs and it’s such a mindf*** that it’s so hard to deal with. It created such a tumultuous time for me that I didn’t deal with it very well.” The singer, who now performs as the low tenor of the vocal group G4, said that there was a “period where it took a dramatic drop”, with his finances being pushed to breaking point. He said: “Finances, work, all of that stuff took a very big dive to a point where I did actually think about bankruptcy. I didn’t do it because, thankfully, I’ve got a brilliant support network. But I did get to a point where I was like, ‘Is this it, is this over?’.”

Jai said that he made some “poor choices”, and that he was “cash poor” but “asset rich”. He also revealed that he moved in with his parents at the time, added: “That took a long time and a lot of grit and determination for me to get back out of that.”

As part of G4, Jai is back to performing regularly, with The X Factor’s second series runners-up still continuing to release music regularly. The band, including Jai, are out on tour at the moment.

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Britain’s Got Talent returned to screens for its 17th series last month. Judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli all returned to seek the recipient of the £250,000 prize and the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance.

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