The Hackney Chanteuse Pauline Pearce

The woman dubbed the Hackney Heroine, Pauline Pearce, is stretching her 15 minutes of fame in a bid to win the next Britain’s Got Talent. If you remember, Pearce gained world-wide notoriety after her profane laden tirade at rioters on Clarence Road in Clapton went viral last summer.

Since then, she has been interviewed numerous times in print, on TV, radio and has taken part in discussions about the riots. More recently she has joined the advisory board of Hackney New School, a  new initiative for a state funded independent free school in Hackney.

Cheeky Pearce who is quite a prolific user of Twitter, kept her audition for Britain’s Got Talent at the HMV  Hammersmith Apollo yesterday, under wraps, but the Daily Mail revealed today that she so impressed Simon Cowell, that he told her:  “You’ve got a lot of spirit and a lot of Soul. You’ve a fantastic voice.”

She got through after a second attempt because Cowell didn’t feel her rendition of Ralph McTell’s ‘The Streets of London‘  which she dedicated to the riot victims, didn’t suit her voice, so she sang Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” to the audience’s delight and has been voted into the next round.

The two joked around about her walking stick, with Cowell asking her: “You’re not going to hit me with that are you?”  She replied: ‘I only threaten people with my stick. I don’t actually hit them.
‘I wont hit you unless you’re a rioter’.

The show that made Susan Boyle a world-wide over-night success, along with the XFactor also has the dubious reputation of attracting people with heart-tugging back stories they tout, in the hope of drawing in sympathy votes. Pauline Pearce has a true colourful back story, that she doesn’t have to make up.  Her teenage son was stabbed in the streets, her daughter raped and she herself is a breast cancer survivor, who got the all clear last summer.

She has also admitted to having served time in prison for smuggling cocaine into the UK and was recently filmed by a tabloid arranging a drug transaction in her Hackney flat. That’s a lot of back story, to see her through along with her talent.

Pearce has sang Jazz and Gospel with several bands around the UK in the past, and there is no doubt she stands a good chance of going far in the competition. Simon Cowell already has a winner, as far as revenue from advertisers and publicity from her accidental fame. Pauline Pearce is a wet dream for the show and that’s just what Cowell likes.