Cate McHugh Wins The Voice UK 2026 as Sir Tom Jones Bows Out After 13 Years

Welsh singer Cate McHugh has won The Voice UK 2026, taking the title in the grand final aired on ITV1 on Saturday night, 31 October — and handing her coach, Sir Tom Jones, the perfect farewell present in the last episode of his final series. Host Emma Willis announced the result, with McHugh, representing Team Tom Jones, finishing ahead of the three other finalist acts.

The victory carries a prize package built to launch a career: £50,000 in cash, a recording contract with Universal Music Group and a holiday to Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. Her winner's single, released on the back of the final, is a cover of The Beatles' 'Blackbird' — a song about learning to fly with broken wings that could hardly suit her story better.

McHugh, 31, comes from Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan, and her road to the final began about as far from prime-time television as it is possible to get. She started out busking in Cardiff at the age of 16, singing for shoppers and passers-by — the oldest apprenticeship in Welsh music, served on the street with a guitar and a collecting tin.

At 22, her life changed completely when she lost her vision to Stargardt disease, a degenerative macular condition that destroys the central sight. For most performers, that would have been the end of the story. For McHugh, it became the defining chapter of the one she has told throughout this series: a singer who cannot see the coaches, the audience or the studio around her, and who performs entirely by ear, memory and nerve.

Her blind audition set the tone for everything that followed. McHugh performed 'Die With A Smile', the Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars duet, and of all the coaches, only Sir Tom Jones turned his chair. In a format built on first impressions formed without sight, the one singer who could not see was chosen by the one coach who trusted nothing but the voice — and the partnership carried her all the way to the title.

Saturday's final brought together four acts, one from each coaching team. McHugh saw off Monique Nicholson-Porter, who represented Team Kelly Rowland; Nana Aldrin-Quaye, from Team will.i.am; and Frank Raven, mentored by McFly's Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones. The final aired on ITV1 and is available to catch up on ITVX.

Not everyone was happy with how the winner was picked. Because the series is pre-recorded, the result was decided by the in-studio audience rather than by a public vote from viewers at home — and once the final aired, that drew pointed criticism online from fans who argued that a winner of this size should be chosen by the audience watching, not just the audience in the room. It is a debate other televised song contests are having in their own way this week: Canada is choosing its first-ever Eurovision entry by opening the decision to a full public vote.

For Jones, the night closed a remarkable chapter. The Welsh legend, 86, has been the defining presence of The Voice UK across 13 years on the show, and last month he confirmed that this series would be his last — ending a tenure that made his chair-turns, his stories and his ear for a voice into a national ritual.

He has never pretended the decision was his own. Writing on Instagram, Jones told his followers: 'To be clear, I did not want to leave The Voice… ITV made this decision.' The bluntness of that statement hung over the whole farewell series, and it made Saturday's outcome feel like a verdict of its own: if this had to be the end, his final act winning the title was the ending the audience in the studio — and plenty watching at home — wanted to see.

The farewell has played out against a demanding live schedule. In the run-up to the final, Jones postponed two American concerts — the 26 October date at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, moved to 4 November, and the 27 October show at the Rady Shell in San Diego, moved to 3 November — citing a bad flu, on doctor's advice, after completing 20 shows on the US run. Original tickets remain valid for the new dates, and refunds were offered to fans who could not make them.

The Voice UK will look very different when it returns. The next series will be hosted by Alesha Dixon and Stacey Solomon, with Cheryl and Aitch joining the coaching panel alongside the returning Kelly Rowland and will.i.am. It is a generational changing of the guard for a format that, for more than a decade, has been anchored by the star power of one Welshman — and for the kind of stage-filling live music television that Britain's biggest entertainment nights are built on.

For McHugh, the work starts now: a single to promote, a major-label contract to fulfil, and a career that has travelled an extraordinary distance from the streets of Cardiff. Whatever comes next, her victory will be remembered as the night The Voice UK said goodbye to its most beloved coach — and his last singer took the title home.