The Voice UK winner Blessing Chitapa on her emotional victory and how she almost picked a different mentor

Speaking to RadioTimes.com about winning ITV's talent competition, she said: "I was so shocked. I was just there trying to stop myself from crying because I was so surprised to think I'd come this far and then won the show, that when [presenter] Emma Willis said my name, it's almost like I wanted another confirmation, like 'Was it really me?'"

Olly Murs mentored Blessing throughout the competition, which was paused in March due to the coronavirus and resumed in November with nine acts battling it out in the semi-finals.

"It's a great feeling to have waited so long and to finally get it done and it's amazing to even know that I'm the winner of the show," she said. "It makes it more emotional for me knowing that the wait was so long and trying to hold on to the show was so long, to now actually being thew winner of the show. Amazing."

The West Midlands-based teenager, who beat Sir Tom Jones' act Jonny Brooks in the final, added that she was worried about the show when a national lockdown was introduced in March and feared the final would never happen.

"Just on the announcement being made that the whole nation, basically the whole world was going into lockdown, it kind of made me think, 'Is the show going to continue?' Because we don't know how crazy this can get, or if it's going to get better, or if it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"And it was just a time where we're trying to hold on to something that we're so unsure about and it was hard to try and keep the momentum of the semifinals coming and the finals coming and to stay hopeful."

"But I think it was so helpful just to have other contestants with you on the journey and to have the coaches and to have Olly just checking in and making sure that I didn't lose hope or faith in the show and then we finally got to do it."

Blessing also revealed that while she was pleased when Olly Murs became her coach, the Zimbabwe-born singer initially had a different mentor "in mind" when first auditioning.

"[I was thinking that] hopefully if all four turn around, I'm hoping that Meghan Trainor will be the one that I choose," Blessing said. "But obviously I didn't get all four and then just Olly turned."

"I feel like Olly was meant for me," she added. "He's taught me so much and I'm glad that even not saying that it's the wrong choice, but I'm just glad that Olly actually became my coach and has kept me through this whole competition and being able to trust him and he believed in me the most."

Blessing won the audience over with her renditions of Robbie Williams' 'Angels', Marisha Wallace's 'Before I Go' and James Bay's 'Hold Back The River', becoming the second female artist to win The Voice UK at 17 years of age.

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