The Scots spinster tipped to win Britain’s Got Talent has revealed her show-stopping singing performance was the first in two years following the death of her mother.

Susan Boyle, a 48-year-old church volunteer from Blackburn, West Lothian, said she could not bring herself to sing after the death of her mother Bridget, 91, in 2007.

The show’s judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden were astonished by her rendition of I Dream A Dream from the musical Les Miserables during auditions for the talent show in Glasgow. Her performance was broadcast on ITV1 last night.

Cowell said her voice was “extraordinary”, while Morgan described her performance as “without a doubt the biggest surprise I have had in three years of this show”.

Boyle, who is being tipped to follow in the footsteps of the 2007 winner Paul Potts, a mobile phone salesman from Wales, said she was only persuaded to sing when she heard about auditions for the show.

“I was left really upset because of the bereavement I had and decided to give up singing,” said Boyle, who took up singing aged 12.

“Up until then I was singing in the church choir and doing karaoke regularly, but I just didn’t feel up to it after that.

“When I heard about the auditions for Britain’s Got Talent I decided to get back into singing and start enjoying life again. I wasn't sure how my voice would sound after so long but the reception I got from the audience and the judges was fantastic.”

Boyle, who has lived alone with her cat Pebbles since the death of her mother and admits to never having been kissed, conceded she would make an unlikely pop star but said she did not have the confidence to perform when she was younger.

“I know I’m an older woman but I would never have had the confidence to do something like this when I was younger,” she said. “I have definitely improved and got more confident as I have got older.”

She added that she hoped her appearances on the show would help her find work. “I have been long-term unemployed and it is very difficult to find work, especially during a recession,” she said.

“I do voluntary work in the community to get out of the house and keep active, but hopefully this experience will help me find something. I’ve got bills to pay and a house to keep.

“I would like to have a career as a singer but I am just taking small steps at the moment. I have had great support from people in the village and my family, they have just told me to go for it.

“Obviously, I am not used to all the attention, but I am coping quite well.”

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