Olly Murs pays moving tribute to late friend Caroline Flack with Sweet Caroline performance on The Voice: ‘She will be looking down and smiling’

performed an incredibly emotional tribute to his late friend on tonight’s , leaving viewers at home in floods of tears.

Flack died by suicide in February 2020 at the age of 40; she and Murs had co-hosted both The  and The Xtra Factor together and had developed a close bond.

In between auditions, and were being kept entertained by the audience, who suddenly started cheering for the Troublemaker singer to perform for them.

‘Do you know what,’ he began, giving in to their demands, ‘I’m going to do a classic song, it’s not one of my ones, obviously they’re classic right!’

He continued: ‘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,’ he added, breaking into song and urging everyone to sing along.

The other judges could of course not help but sing along, while those at home were left in floods of tears at the emotional tribute.

Towards the end of the performance, Olly thanked the audience and blew a kiss and pointed it towards the sky, before looking a bit teary himself.

‘Olly singing for Caroline Flack I’m in tears,’ one person wrote, while another penned: ‘Caroline Flack will be looking down and smiling at this Olly.’

‘Olly singing Sweet Caroline and dedicating it to Caroline Flack had me in tears,’ another added.

Murs has , sharing how devastated he was and admitting he wonders if he could have done anything to prevent it.

‘I miss her every day and I think about her every day,’ he told The Daily Star earlier this year. ‘I think about what I could have done to change things, what I could have said.

Reflecting on Flack’s tragic death, he admitted he had ‘never experienced… that level of grief’ before.

Murs said he was ‘lucky’ to have the support of his friends and family, and finds ‘a lot of comfort’ in speaking to Flack’s mother and her own friends.

‘I’ll never forget her,’ he said.

‘She is always there in my memories and thoughts. I’ll always try to do my best for her.’

The Voice continues next Saturday on ITV.