Andrea Begley wins The Voice: Team Danny singer is surprise choice of BBC viewers

The singer, from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, beat Matt Henry, Leah McFall and Mike Ward in the final

Andrea Begley was tonight crowned the champion of The Voice, beating bookies favourite Leah McFall.

The visually-impaired singer, coached by Danny O'Donoghue, also beat Matt Henry, 34, and Mike Ward, 23, in the public vote on the BBC1 talent show.

On hearing the result the angelic singer, 27, was lost for words.

She told presenter Holly Willoughby: 'I actually can't speak. Thank you.

"I could never have imagined this. I have to thank everyone at home who voted for me and hopefully I can put your vote to good use.'

Joining her on stage Danny gushed: ''I'm so proud of you."

He added: "You're an inspiration to me. I've learnt more from you than you probably have from me ."

Soulful Matt - coached by Jessie J -was the first to be axed on the night, receiving the fewest public votes.

A gob-smacked Holly told him: "I'm so sorry and so shocked. You've been absolutely brilliant."

Matt said: 'This competition means the world to me. It's allowed me to work with some of the most amazing artists.'

Annoyed coach Jessie joined him on stage and said: "Based on Matt's performance this shouldn't be what's happened right now."

And appealing to the viewers she added: "You have to vote for the person who pulls the performance out the bag."

Andrea has 10% vision and has to memorise the lyrics to her song choices because she cannot read them off a monitor.

But she said she wants to be judged by her music, adding: "That's the way I expect the industry to take me, on the basis of what I do musically."

The singer joked that her lack of vision helps in some ways.

She said: "It sounds awful but I don't have to look at everybody and sometimes that can be a good thing if they don't look that happy to listen to me."

Her coach, The Script singer Danny O'Donoghue, said the show had learned from the failure of last year's winner, Leanne Mitchell, whose debut single did not even reach the top 40.

He said they knew now that they had to develop a "game plan very early on" for the winning act.

He predicted she will have an album out before Christmas.

Source: The Mirror