BGT’s Jai McDowall now – Simon Cowell feud, nose job and joining X Factor boyband

Jai McDowall rose to fame in 2011 becoming the fifth winner of Britain’s Got Talent.

Despite criticism from Simon Cowell of his “monotone” voice during his performance in the final, Jai impressed the other judges – Michael McIntyre, Amanda Holden and David Hasselhoff – and the public enough to pip 12-year old singer Ronan Parke to the crown.

Jai went on to sign for Cowell’s Syco label, but after his debt album flopped his contract wasn’t renewed. Since then Cowell has apologised for his “lack of support” as Jai took to the ITV stage in 2019 for BGT’s The Champions edition.

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Now, we look back at the singer’s exploits in the 13 years since he became a star, including an unusual transformation and his new singing act.

Nose job

Jai pocketed a cool £100,000 from winning BGT and later splashed some of the cash on transforming his image. In 2022 he opened on his nose job surgery – something he underwent to save his singing voice as he suffered from a deviated septum which was making him sick.

Jai had previously broken his nose after stepping in to break up a bar fight, and admitted he didn’t like how it looked in the aftermath. He told the Daily Star: “I had a deviated septum. I got my nose broken years ago in a pub fight. Annoyingly, I was just trying to split it up.

“I used to work behind the bar and this pub. The nose got broken and since then it was deviated and it got to a point where, weirdly enough, I was doing cruises and you can’t turn the air-con off. So I was getting really bunged up all the time, and I was like ‘what it going on?’ I was always getting sick on cruises because I’d always have this horrible thing. I went to the doctor and he was like ‘no, you’ve got a really small septum. You’re going to have to get it fixed.”

After a few appointments through the help of a friend, Jai got his nose sorted out, and he said the results were “great”. He also used it as an opportunity to get a nose job as his nose was already broken, and he was delighted with the results and felt like it did “wonders” for his confidence.

“It was good!” he declared afterwards. “And it’s one of those things where it has done wonders for my confidence because I knew my nose was a wee bit bent and crooked. I’d always hate when people took photos from the side. But ever since, I feel fine.”

Drug accusations

Jai was later forced to deny accusations the deviated septum had come about from cocaine use, meanwhile. Slamming the rumours in 2017, he told The Sun after the surgery: “The amount of times I’ve been asked if I have a cocaine habit and that’s why I have a deviated septum in the first place has been unreal.

“I don’t have a cocaine habit just in case anyone is wondering.” And after one of his followers suggested surgeons use the substance to stop bleeding during procedures, Jai joked: “Andy McGee says I might get some cocaine to stop the bleeding so it might be a party in Jai’s room tonight.”

Simon Cowell feud

Jai finally addressed his previous fallout with BGT boss Simon Cowell in an interview in 2022, meanwhile, explaining how they buried the hatchet during The Champions. It followed more comments years by the music mogul who said he had been “disappointed” with Jai’s progress, adding: “He wasn’t one of our best ones.”

Jai later hit back at the BGT boss by branding him “anti-Scottish” after another Scottish star was ejected from the show. But after their reunion in 2019, he said it’s now all water under the bridge, Jai said: “Thankfully it is,” Jai began. “It was one of those things years ago where I was doing interviews for the Daily Record, I think. The last Scottish person had been put out the competition so there was a lot of things said. I was asked if he was anti-Scottish and I was like ‘Yeah, sounds like it. Haha’.

The Scots singer then defended Simon as he explained how much he’d done for himself and fellow Scottish BGT star Susan Boyle. “I got the album deal and I got a tour, and I got certain things out of it that I wasn’t supposed to, and I always say to people that I got a lot more than I should have. He didn’t do me that wrong,” Jai added of Cowell.

He then recalled the emotional moment he caught up with Simon, which left him fighting back tears. Jai said: “At Champions, him and I spoke. It was nice of him to publicly apologise, but we spoke after the show and I was like, ‘Look, everything that happened. It was just a misunderstanding. He was like ‘Oh no, I get it. Don’t worry about it. It’s all fixed’.”

Joining G4

Last year Jai joined vocal troupe group, G4 – themselves a product of Cowell’s TV success, having finished runner-up to Steve Brookstein in the first X Factor series in 2004. Jai replaced outgoing original member, Lewis Raines.

Following Lewis final performance on stage in Ayr, Jai was introduced the crowd having been waiting in the wings backstage. “Difficult shoes to fill. We are thrilled to have found your replacement right here in Ayrshire,” said Jonathan Ansell. “Please go crazy – the newest member of G4 – it’s Jai McDowall.” The group are now on a 20th anniversary tour of the UK.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk