CLEO Higgins, a semi-finalist under the mentorship of Will I Am in the 2013 series of BBC1 talent contest The Voice, has been pushing her voice to the max in Thriller Live, the Michael Jackson tribute concert show.

“I’ve never done a show like this before, and I’ve killed every show every night, so I got to the point where I had to take five days off,” says the fully recovered York-bound soul singer, who first found teen fame in the 1990s fronting Cleopatra, three R&B-singing sisters from Moss Side, Manchester.

“I was in tears when I couldn’t sing because singing is what I do, and I couldn’t even speak. Doing this show is different from when you’re on tour with your own group doing your own material. With Thriller Live it’s a long tour and you’re on stage for two hours night after night. It’s eight shows a week, two days with matinees, and it’s a high-energy performance with lots of kicks.”

After her exploits in The Voice, the producers of Thriller Live offered her the female lead role in a show that has sold more than 2,500,000 tickets worldwide. Yes, and she really is the female lead vocalist in a Michael Jackson show.

“It was alarming to get the call. I said, ‘But I’m a girl!’, and they said ‘That’s fine, we usually have a girl in the show and the singers don’t have to dance like Michael’. So I went down to London, did the auditions and I got the role. Yes!”

In doing so, it brought her career full circle because, like Michael, Cleo was a child star, signing to Madonna’s label Maverick with sisters Zainam and Yonah at only 13 after winning a talent contest.

Named after their lead singer – born Cleopatra Madonna Higgins on April 30 1982 in Birmingham, before moving north aged six – Cleopatra had three Top Five hits in 1998 with Cleopatra’s Theme, Life Ain’t Easy and a cover of The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back.

They went on to record two TV series, Comin’ Atcha! and In The House, which both followed the girls on tour and at home with their mother and younger sister, and their rollercoaster ride took them on the road with The Spice Girls and to Rome for concerts at the Vatican.

There was an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight show and a contract as the faces of make-up maverick Cover Girl, but their “grown-up” second album, Stepping Out, was never released in Britain.

Here was a classic rise-and-fall pop story, yet Cleo never lost her faith in making music – a faith inspired by Michael Jackson – even though she trained as a pastry chef, completing her qualifications shortly before her renaissance on The Voice.

“For me, Michael has been in my life even before I was born, because my parents loved his music and then introduced his songs to me – and I was just struck by how magical he was,” says Cleo.

“I came from a musical family anyway; both my parents were musicians, playing reggae music, but it was definitely Michael who established for me what music was really about.

“I was nine when I first performed – my sisters were seven and ten – and I just loved to sing, at local venues in Manchester initially and then travelling around, and when I look back at Michael’s life, we both had such a musical childhood so I always felt connected.”

That connection has strengthened with Thriller Live, in which she pours everything into singing Blame It On The Boogie and The Way You Make Me Feel.

“I was nervous about doing that one but I’ve made it work for a woman. I get to show off and have all the guys flirting with me, which is fine by me,” says Cleo.

“Now I feel like I’m doing Michael’s work for him that he can’t do any more, which is so humbling that I have to hold myself back from crying.”

Now 31, and the mother of a daughter aged 12 and a son of seven, Cleo is revelling in her re-born career.

“I love Thriller Live and I’d love to stay in it for ages but I can’t if I want to release my own records, so I’ll have to come out of the show, but I’ve really enjoyed the experience,” she says.

“I have material ready for recording, so I’m looking to go back into the studio because I’ve been writing from my heart, from the experience I’ve been through, to represent who I am now, not who I was when I was 15 or 25.”

And on that note, off she went to collect her son from the dentist.

• Thriller Live runs at Grand Opera House, York, from Monday to Saturday; performances at 7.30pm, Monday to Thursday; 5pm and 8pm, Friday; 3pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york. Please note, The X Factor finalist Rachel Adedeji will take over Cleo Higgins’s role for the Saturday shows.