The emotional moment even forced one of the other coaches to leave the stage
Legendary Welsh singer Sir Tom Jones broke judges’ and viewers’ hearts on The Voice UK as he sang a tribute to his late wife. The singing competition was back on ITV on Saturday night (September 3) for a brand new series.
The emotional moment had viewers “bawling their eyes out”, and fellow judge Anne-Marie even had to walk off as she was visibly overwhlemed. Sir Tom, who met Melinda Trenchard when he was just 12 years old before marrying her four years later, stole the show with his beautiful tribute.
As former X Factor star Olly Murs asked his fellow Voice judges what song they’d sing if they were to audition for the competition, Sir Tom suggested he’d perform a power ballad. The studio audience wasted no time in asking the Welsh legend for a song. Things quickly became emotional as Sir Tom sang a song he dedicated to his late wife.
You could hear a pin drop as the 82-year-old belted out a vocally perfect rendition of I Won’t Crumble With You If You Fall. Before singing, he explained: “Now this song is very important to me. I try to pick songs that mean a lot to me. And this song is trying to tell you that people that you love, sometimes they need to be backed up. You need to give them strength and encouragement.”
Following the spinetingling performance, Sir Tom went on to explain that he had chosen the song for his album in memory of Melinda, who died in 2016 from lung cancer at the age of 75.
Leaving his fellow coaches in awe, he addressed the audience: “My wife, you know, she was dying of lung cancer, so I said, you know, I was always able to fix stuff, to do things if she needed me I was always there.
“She said, ‘Don’t crumble with me, don’t fall now, you’ve done everything you can, you must carry on and do what you do.’ So I put the song, when I heard it, it was like it was written for this situation. It’s a lovely song.” Olly had tears in his eyes as Sir Tom spoke and Anne-Marie couldn’t hide her emotion either.
The 31-year-old went on to describe Tom’s mini performance as “one of the best moments of my life”. Olly tweeted crying emojis as he followed along with the show live, and viewers clearly felt the same way as they admitted to “sobbing”.
@shaunadennett09 tweeted: “Sobbing @RealSirTomJones is, and will always be, a legend. This vocal. Incredible. #thevoiceuk.” @yourschloex echoed: “I was sobbing like a baby hearing Sir Tom sing that beautiful song but the story about his late wife has absolutely broken me #TheVoiceUK.”
@sujo777 commented: “Just balled my eyes out listening to Tom Jones singing about his wife on The Voice. What an incredible man. We have to keep him alive forever.” @luckyb29 added: “#TheVoiceUK Tom Jones what a guy! What a voice! What a beautiful song it reduced me to tears! I love Tom Jones.”
Prior to the first episode airing, Anne-Marie revealed she had to walk off set after Sir Tom’s emotional performance. She told The Express: “Tom sang one of his songs called Crumble for his wife. And I had to walk off, not because it was bad, [but] because it was so emotional.”
She continued: “I think this is like a testament to him and why he has been able to stay around [for] so long because he feels every word he says and every song he releases he means it. And he was singing that song and he said, ‘This is to my wife’ and he just f****d me up.”