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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Josh Luckhurst

Emotional Olly Murs pays tribute to Caroline Flack with Sweet Caroline cover on The Voice

Olly Murs was visibly emotional as he paid tribute to the late Caroline Flack with a sweet rendition of Sweet Caroline on The Voice.

The live audience of the popular ITV singing competition urged the former X Factor star to show off his impressive vocals as he and fellow judges Sir Tom Jones, Anne-Marie and will.i.am waited for the next act to audition.

The Troublemaker singer caved in to the demands of the increasingly raucous crowd before explaining which song he was going to perform.

After testing his microphone, Olly said: "Do you know what... I’m going to do a classic song, it’s not one of my ones, obviously they’re classic right!

Olly performing Sweet Caroline on The Voice (ITV)

"I want to dedicate it to having you lot back, and also I want to dedicate it to my friend Caroline Flack. It’s called Sweet Caroline and it goes like this," before starting his version of the Neil Diamond hit.

Former Love Island presenter Caroline tragically took her own life at the age of 40 in February 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Caroline and Olly became close friends when the pair co-hosted both The Xtra Factor and X Factor.

Olly and Caroline were close friends after hosting Xtra Factor and X Factor together (Olly Murs/Instagram)

The audience sang along with Olly as he stepped out of his big red chair and took to stage, with the other three judges failing to contain their excitement and singing along too.

After his impromptu performance, Olly thanked the audience before he looked up, blew a kiss and pointed to the sky with tears clearly in his eyes.

In July, fans, friends and family of Caroline joined together to remember her and celebrate her life in a one-off festival.

Flackstock was the brainchild of Caroline's mother Christine as well as her sister Jody, close friends Dawn O'Porter, Natalie Pinkham, Anna Blue, Sarah Tyekiff and Leigh and Jill Francis.

The festival celebrated her life with acts from the worlds of comedy, dance and music to raise funds for charities Mind, Samaritans, Choose Love and the Charlie Waller Trust.

Olly was among the many acts to perform at Englefield House, near Pangbourne, with the likes of Louise Redknapp, Dermot O'Leary, Rylan Clark and Fleur East also in attendance.

Olly blew a kiss and pointed to the sky after his impromptu performance (ITV)

Former Strictly Come Dancing stars Janette Manrara and her husband Aljaz Skorjanec performed a routine to Footloose before teaching the crowd, along with Joel Dommett and Keith Lemon on stage, some Salsa moves.

Caroline won the popular dancing competition in 2014 alongside her professional partner Pasha Kovalev.

The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.

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