Will The Voice coaches sing the praises of returning Mia?

Luton’s Mia Sylvester is back on The Voice – BBC1’s answer to The X Factor – this Saturday.

The 28-year-old successfully negotiated preliminary producer auditions (which aren’t broadcast) featuring 50,000 hopefuls to get on the show again.

Although she was knocked out at the same blind audition stage last year, Mia decided to give it another try after getting rave reviews from the judges in 2015 who controversially still didn’t put her through.

Mia, who got to the latter Boot Camp stage of The X Factor in 2012, will be shown performing Ain’t No Way by Aretha Franklin in the pre-recorded programme which airs at 7.15pm.

She’ll be trying to impress will.i.am and and Ricky Wilson once again – but this year she’ll be hoping for better luck with Boy George and Paloma Faith replacing Rita Ora and Sir Tom Jones.

Mia said she was sworn to secrecy on the outcome of her latest bid for stardom when she spoke to the H&P ahead of the show.

Reflecting on last year, Mia, of Limbury, said: “I did think afterwards, am I just not as good as I thought I was?”

But she added: “The door was always open to me from last year where they encouraged me to go back. I thought because of the positive comments it would be silly of me not to give it a go.”

She said: I was proud to get through to the blind auditions again as there were 50,000 hopefuls this year, so it’s a very select number of people who got through.”

Apart from singing at a couple of weddings, Mia hasn’t really performed since her blind audition last year.

The former Lea Manor High School pupil returned to work as an electrician because she “wanted to be realistic and to crack on with the real world”, and has been promoted this year in her job.

Last year, after performing Avicii’s Addicted To You she didn’t make it through to the next round as the celebrities said they already had a high quota of female singers on their teams.

Will told her: “Everyone on the chairs has been told ‘no’ many times. The nos become your strength. Let this be the fuel in your fire because you have amazing talent.”

> For those who don’t watch the The Voice, the twist comes with the fact that the judges listen to the auditions with their back to the singers, so the contestants are only rated on their vocal talent and not by their appearance or overall performance.

If they like what they hear then the coaches press their button and their chair spins round so they can see the singer who they want to take through to the next round.