'I decided I was going to be Taylor Swift' - singer goes from busking to The Voice UK winner

The winner of the Voice UK says she decided "I was going to be Taylor Swift" as a teenager after being given a guitar, before busking on the streets of Cardiff.

Welsh singer Cate McHugh was crowned the winner of the show on Saturday, after being mentored by "the legend that is Sir Tom Jones".

McHugh, from Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, said Sir Tom was so warm and supportive that it felt "as if you've known him for years".

One of the standout pieces of advice he gave to her early on was to focus on the story being told in the song, she explained.

McHugh said that when she found herself getting "a little bit flappy and excited" while rehearsing Sir Tom would say "nope, what's the story?", and urged her to focus on that and "stay true".

The 32-year-old, who began her career as a teenager busking under the watchful eye of her parents, said she and Sir Tom had "really lovely interactions and a lovely comfortable connection" and that it was "just an honour to be in his presence".

The final was a poignant moment for Sir Tom as it was his last appearance on the show, having been a coach on and off since it began in 2012.

He made headlines in September after revealing that ITV had "made the decision" to "fire" him from the show's coaching panel.

McHugh said that in the moments before she was announced as the winner, she felt "super peaceful because I was so happy with where I'd come" in the show.

The singer, who has a six-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old stepson, said she felt confetti on her shoulder and "opened my eyes and thought 'oh my God, they said my name'."

She said she wanted to thank her family, including her husband Nathan, for surrounding her with "all of that love" and support throughout the show and during the final.

Recalling her early days of performing, McHugh said "I was the kid who was always singing and my parents decided very early on that if they didn't put me in singing lessons this was going to get really annoying really quickly".

She was gifted an acoustic guitar for her birthday around the time Taylor Swift released her album Fearless, and "decided that I was going to be Taylor Swift, I was going to learn the entire album from start to finish".

Aged 15, she told her parents she wanted to busk in Cardiff and "they did everything they could to fulfil that happening in the safest way which did mean, apparently, my father was lingering around on Queen Street, just keeping an eye on me".

Busking and taking requests from passers-by helped her to gain confidence and she has "paid my dues since then", including singing on cruise ships, McHugh said.

McHugh said that navigating losing her sight aged 22 due to degenerative macular condition Stargardt disease had made her more determined to succeed.

She said music had "always been an outlet, emotionally, as so many musicians will say, but for me, when I'm on a stage singing and the lights are down on the audience, it's the one place that I don't think about my sight loss".

McHugh said that "as long as I know the words and I'm not trying to read them off an iPad then I'm absolutely there in that moment".

She described her sight loss as "just a small part of me, it's not who I am".

McHugh added that while many people with differences and disabilities sometimes felt they had to make themselves smaller "so that you don't become a nuisance to people", she chose "to find a way to take up space and be bigger and that's where music took me".

She is now working on her first original song in a studio which should be released "relatively soon, hopefully, fingers crossed".

Footage shared by McHugh on social media after her win showed her laughing and smiling with family and friends screaming in delight as they celebrated her victory at a watch party in Cardiff.

She has won a £50,000 cash prize and a recording contract, with her first ever single, a cover of The Beatles classic Blackbird, now released.