The great-nephew of the late British entertainer Cilla Black has wowed the judges on the latest series of ‘The Voice’, and has made it through to the second round.

22 year old Tobias Robertson kept success in the family on Saturday night’s episode of ‘The Voice’ as he impressed Boy George enough to turn his chair around with a rendition of Randy Newman’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend’. “You’re a real singer,” the former Culture Club frontman said afterwards, adding Robertson to his team as well.

Fellow judges will.i.am, Paloma Faith and Ricky Wilson all seemed to enjoy the performance, swaying along and clapping their hands.

 

That performance was filmed in September last year, just a few weeks after Cilla Black died at her holiday villa in Spain. Robertson, from Newport, South Wales, only met his famous great-aunt once, at the funeral of his grandfather, Cilla’s brother George, in 2010.

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“I only actually met my great-auntie Cilla once at my grandad’s funeral in Liverpool,” he told Wales Online. “I remember it was snowing and she had this massive fur coat on. We only chatted for five minutes but when she found out I was doing music she told me to never stop doing it.”

During an interview with the Press Association, Robertson explained why he opted against singing a song by his late great aunt. “The audition was quite close to when she passed away so I didn't really want to go down that route,” he said, “especially as my mum was there to watch and I know she would have burst into tears if I started to sing a Cilla one.”

He had also kept his celebrity connection a secret during the blind auditions process, as he didn’t want that knowledge to sway anybody’s impressions of him as a singer and preferred to get ahead on his own merit.

However, Robertson has also said that he’d one day like to honour his famous relative by recording an album of his takes on her famous hits, if he ever becomes famous enough.

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