Who is Matty Juniosa, the Filipino who got a golden buzzer on 'Britain's Got Talent' Season 19?
There is yet another Filipino singing superstar on the global stage.
Matty Juniosa, a 27-year-old Filipino part-time waiter living in Glasgow, Scotland for the past three years, is the toast of the town, having earned the golden buzzer in Britain's Got Talent Season 19's auditions.
Performing Prince's Purple Rain, Juniosa received a standing ovation from the audience and all four judges of the UK-based reality singing show: Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and KSA.
That wasn't enough. As the judges heaped praises on Juniosa, the audience chanted, "Press that gold," collectively pushing the judges to send Juniosa straight to the competition's live shows by pressing the gold buzzer. Cowell, not needing the prodding, pushed the button.
Who is this singing Pinoy waiter whose energy and talent so impressed everyone in Britain's Got Talent?
Musical theater scholar
According to his Spotlight account, Juniosa, who goes by Matty J publicly, has been performing in musicals since 2018, before he apparently migrated to the UK.
His first theater credit, per Spotlight, is in Atlantis Theatrical's Seussical the Musical in 2018 in Manila, where he portrayed Sour Kangaroo.
The next time he performed in a musical was six years later in the UK, where he moved to Glasgow on a partial scholarship for musical theater at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
He joined the ensemble in the 2024 production of the Broadway musical She Loves Me with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In the same year, he played Clopin in Hunchback of Notre Dame and Lola in Kinky Boots.
In 2025, Juniosa portrayed Mitch Mahoney in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Hanschen Rillow in Spring Awakening, and Sonja in Oscar at the Crown.
This year, he played Muzha in Ne Zha.
No stranger to showbiz
Before he performed on Britain's Got Talent, Juniosa told the judges that he had always thought of himself as "a singing competition loser."
In 2019, at 20, Juniosa was eliminated from the top 12 of Idol Philippines Season 1. But this did not discourage him from performing.
With fellow Idol Philippines contestants Lucas Garcia and Enzo Almario, Juniosa joined the all-male vocal trio iDolls put together by ABS-CBN. In its heyday, the group, an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, released original songs, including Kapangyarihan and Hanggang Dito Na Lang.
The trio, who became known across the Philippines, also joined Season 3 of reality show Your Face Sounds Familiar as Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting performing All For Love. They won Week 7.
TikTok sensation
Off stage, Juniosa continues to perform online.
With 85,800 followers on TikTok, he likes to cover Filipino and international songs. The screenshot above shows him doing a harmony challenge set by American singer-songwriter Victor Suarez with Hopelessly Devoted to You. As of writing, the clip has gotten 397,000 likes, with Suarez himself writing, "I would kill for that range."
Although he peppers his content with pop songs, such as Morissette's Gusto Ko Nang Bumitaw and a karaoke session with him singing Celine Dion's All by Myself, Juniosa's penchant for musical theater also shines through. On his social media are clips of him performing Broadway gems, like Home from The Wiz and The Wizard and I from Wicked.
