Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

Today I came across a great little picture of Jessica Price from someone who knows her. It’s kind of nice to see what some of the America’s Got Talent contestants look like in a more casual environment. Too bad we still have a couple weeks to wait to see Jessica perform again. Enjoy the picture.

NBC announced that they’d be ruining America’s Got Talent for another season. You can see Simon Cowell just licking his chops can’t you? Here’s an excerpt from the announcement as reported by Hollywood Reporter:

NBC has renewed “America’s Got Talent” for a fourth season.

“The production team has stepped up their game creatively as proven by the strong ratings,” said NBC’s president of alternative programming Craig Plestis. “This is the only show where truly unique and talented performers can achieve their ultimate dream.”

“Got Talent” is the most-watched show of the summer and ranked third among programs in the adults 18 to 49 demographic.

I for one am very glad that the show got renewed. I wasn’t really worried about it to be honest with you. I knew that the ratings were doing great. Despite allowing a number of untalented people into the top 40, it’s still very entertaining to watch.

The second episode of the live performance semifinals was broadcast from Los Angeles, California on August 27, 2008. Below you’ll find a list of all the music that was performed on the live America’s Got Talent performance of these 10 contestants and their previous performances on America’s Got Talent.

If you’re looking for the video of their performances, you can find it here. Otherwise, you can look through America’s Got Talent music.

Acts that performed include:

* Beyond Belief Dance Company
o General: 22 member dance troupe from Mesquite, Texas.
o Preliminaries, Week 3: Danced to “Fashionista” . Morgan disliked the group’s outfits and makeup, but loved their performance.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Danced to “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Performed to “When I Grow Up” by the Pussycat Dolls

* Paul Salos
o General: Frank Sinatra style singer/performer
o Preliminaries, Week 3: Sang “Fly Me to the Moon”
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Sang “My Way”

* Kazual
o General: A cappella barbershop quartet style group
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Sang “Can You Feel It” by The Jackson 5 . They were heavily criticized that, besides the main lead singer, the others did not have solo quality voices and the group should stick to the other three backing up and harmonizing with the lead singer.

* Zooperstars
o General: Oversized animal mascot versions of various sports celebrities, already a popular act at various minor league baseball games and other sporting events.
o Preliminaries, Week 5: Performed to “Tootsee Roll”.
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Performed to “Macho Man” and “Y.M.C.A.” by The Village People, including having one of the members swallow a second performer into the costume.

* The Wright Kids
o General: Three children who played the guitar, mandolin and upright bass. Bluegrass group
o Preliminaries: Performance was not televised
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Only shown briefly in a montage. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Sang “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees

* Jonathan Arons
o General: Trombonist and dancer
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Performed to “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performed to “Car Wash” by Rose Royce.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through[49]
o Semifinals (Part 2): Danced and performed to “Let’s Groove” and “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire

* Daniel Jens
o General: Singer/guitarist who had just returned from active duty in Iraq.
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Performed “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang Michael Buble’s “Home” . Forgot his lyrics halfway through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Sang “Every Breath You Take” by The Police

* Slippery Kittens
o General: A group of high-energy burlesque strippers comprised of mothers.
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Performed to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by The Andrews Sisters

* Queen Emily
o General: Emily David, singer
o Preliminaries, Week 6: Sang “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “I’m Every Woman” by Whitney Houston.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 2): Sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Diana Ross

The first episode of the live performance semifinals was broadcast from Los Angeles, California on August 26, 2008. Below you’ll find a list of all the music that was performed on the live America’s Got Talent performance of these 10 contestants.

If you’re looking for the video of their performances, you can find it here. Otherwise, you can look through America’s Got Talent music.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Derrick Barry
o General: Male Britney Spears impersonator
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Performed to “Toxic”.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performed to “Gimme More.”
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “…Baby One More Time” , received an X from Piers for not “wowing” him
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

* Ronny B
o General: Ron Belala, singer and dancer
o Preliminaries, Week 6: Danced and sang to “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie . David disliked his performance, saying “This is a talent show, not a freak show.”
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin . Hasselhoff said in an interview he had “0″ talent.
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

* The DC Cowboys
o General: All-male dance troupe
o Preliminaries, Week 2: danced to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” by Big & Rich.
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown.
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins.
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

Acts that are still in the competition are:

* Extreme Dance FX
o General: contemporary young clog team
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown.
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Push It by Salt-n-Pepa”
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* The Cadence
o General: Stomp-style percussion group made up mostly of college students.
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Beat It” as made famous by Michael Jackson
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* Jessica Price
o General: 24 year old singer
o Preliminaries, Week 3: Sang “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Teardrops On My Guitar” by Taylor Swift.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Sang “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* Neal Boyd
o General: 32 year old insurance salesman and opera singer
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Sang “Nessun dorma” from the opera Turandot.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Unchained Melody” in Italian.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Sang “Somewhere” from the musical West Side Story . Was declared the “Michael Phelps” of the competition, and the man to beat.
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

Only one of the Wild Card acts was a singer. The following is the music for that one Wild Card Act:

* Kyle Rifkin
o Preliminaries, Week 4: R&B singer. Sang “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” Passed through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated (Judges Wild Card)
o Semifinals (Part 1): Eliminated again, did not get the Wildcard slot.

Below you’ll find the best I could do at creating a list of music from those contestants eliminated during the Las Vegas Callbacks of America’s Got Talent. This list also includes music from the previous weeks from those eliminated in Las Vegas.

Here’s a link to see all the songs and music of America’s Got Talent.

A total of 113 acts made it to the Las Vegas callbacks. From those, a total of 19 of these acts where eliminated without even being given a chance to perform. The remaining 94 acts were trimmed down to a short list of 60 acts in the first of the two callback episodes, and the remaining acts were further trimmed to a Top 40 group in the second episode.

Acts that were eliminated without being given a second performance:

* Chellena Black-Harris
o Preliminaries, Week 2: singer, sang “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke.

Acts that were eliminated after the first cut, but did not make it to the top 60:

* Cafidia Stuart
o Preliminaries, Week 1: 15 year old sang Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown, but was shown being eliminated.

* Holly Hardin
o Preliminaries, Week 3: sang “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” by Jessica Simpson
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “When God-Fearing Women Get the Blues” by Martina McBride.

* Shakes
o Preliminaries, Week 6: 10 year old dancer
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Danced to “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer.

* Mia Boostrom
o Preliminaries, Shown in clip form: Sang “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys while playing the piano.

* Cat Williams
o Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed Through
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Let The Good Times Roll” by Ray Charles.

* Randy Hanson
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Ozzy Osbourne impersonator. Sharon commented that the only way she could tell him from her husband was if he “dropped his trousers so she could take a look at the goods.” Sang “Paranoid”.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Only shown briefly in a montage.

Acts that made it to the top 60, but not the top 40:

* David Militello
o Preliminaries, Week 3: 9 year old sang “Ben” by Michael Jackson
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang “If We Hold On Together” by Diana Ross Passed through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated

* Holly Stone
o Preliminaries, Week 7: sang “A Broken Wing” by Martina McBride.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown. Passed through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated

Acts that were eliminated at an unknown stage of the Las Vegas Callbacks:

* Next II None (N2N)
o Preliminaries, Week 2: family boy band performed “Bye Bye Bye” by ‘N Sync
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Not shown, but did not make the Top 40, so presumed eliminated by the judges.

* XL
o Preliminaries, Week 6: 25 year old Xavier Lewis sang “Ordinary People” by John Legend
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Not shown, but did not make the Top 40, so presumed eliminated by the judges.

I’d been meaning to post a list of all the music I could find from America’s Got Talent, but just never got around to it until now. So, time to play catchup. Below you’ll find all the music I could find from weeks 1 through 7 of America’s Got Talent. Here’s a link to find all the music from America’s Got Talent as I post each episode’s music in the future.

America’s Got Talent – Week 1
Aired on June 17, 2008, 2 hours. Auditions from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles were shown.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Serious Mysterious Bill Curlee sang and danced to It’s Not Unusual by Tom Jones.

* The Renegades, dance group performed to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”

– Original Michael Jackson Music Video

America’s Got Talent – Week 2
Aired on June 24, 2008, 2 hours. Auditions from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles were shown.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Victoria, the Singing Fairy sang “When You Wish Upon a Star”

* Michael Droll, the “Ozzman”, Ozzy Osbourne impersonator sang “Crazy Train”

America’s Got Talent – Week 3
Aired on July 1, 2008, 2 Hours. Auditions from Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Corky Duke – line dancer danced to “Cotton-Eyed Joe”

* Zane & Stephanie – married singers, sang “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers

America’s Got Talent – Week 5
Aired on July 15, 2008, 1 hour. Auditions from Atlanta, and Dallas.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Michelle Wallace – sang “All by Myself” by Celine Dion.

America’s Got Talent – Week 6
Aired on July 22, 2008, 1 hour. Auditions from New York, and Los Angeles.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Sweet-Lou Fusco – sang “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson

– Original Michael Jackson Music Video

America’s Got Talent – Week 7
Aired on July 29, 2008, 1 hour. Auditions from Myspace.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Michael Trixx – rock and roll magician performed to “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” by Judas Priest.

– Live Judas Priest version

Tonight’s episode of America’s Got Talent, they sent home half of the 10 performers from last night’s semi finals. In case, you missed it, you can watch the videos of these AGT semifinalists here.

Now to take a look at who was sent home and who was saying. I’m going to put my own personal rank of who I think has the best chance of winning the competition (not necessarily who I want to win since you already know I want Jessica Price to win).

Here goes…my rankings of the first 5 contestants making it to the top 20 of America’s Got Talent:
Neal Boyd – Knockout performance, great story and seems like one of us.
Jessica Price – Incredible person with a really wonderful voice. Needs to show a bit more of her personality and America will fall at her feet voting.
Extreme Dance FX – Great commitment and their leader does a great job being the spokesperson for the group and sharing their story. Maybe not the best dance group ever, but great fun to watch.
James Gang – Really failed in their performance last night, but now they’re given a second chance. Their performance is so unique it’s hard to compare them to something else.
Cadence – Not as good as blue man group and I think that will catch up with them unless they pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Now some thoughts on those acts who got sent home tonight:
Elite – Very sad to see you go. I hope that Treasure Island does approach you. Only problem is that the scale of the pirate show is so big that they wouldn’t really see you. Plus, that show has gone nearly adult entertainment so I’m not sure how a little kid fits into their program.
Shimshi – Disappointing finish. I would have liked to see him do some more. Can he come back next year?
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears – Glad to see you gone, but I’ll be incredibly surprised if you don’t get either a gig in Las Vegas or being a body double for Britney Spears herself.
DC Cowboys – Glad I will probably never see this group perform again.
Ronny B – If I can just make it through the replays that include him, then we’ll be ok. Hopefully he enjoyed his time on the show, because I really didn’t.

The best part of this all is that I think America got it all dead right. The correct five are in the top 20 and the correct five were sent home. Plus, Elite and James Gang were just meant to be 5 and 6. America loved Elite more because she was cute and entertaining to watch, but James Gang had more potential for the future of the show.

Feel free to agree or disagree with me.

Tonight’s America’s Got Talent Semis wasn’t nearly as captivating as last night’s America’s Got Talent semis. However, still quite entertaining to watch and one or two that should make it quite a ways. The following acts performed on this show: Beyond Belief Dance Company, Zooperstars, Jonathan Arons, Daniel Jens, Queen Emily, Paul Salos, Wright Kids, Kazual, Slippery Kittens, and George the Giant.

Here’s the video of their semi final acts:

**Click on the arrows on the side to skip to the next act.

Here’s a link to find all the videos of the America’s Got Talent semis.

Look for a full evaluation of tonight’s performances in the next couple days.

In a recent article about Jessica price there were some interesting quotes from Jessica.

On being away from GR and her job at medical supply company PSI: “It’s hard being away from my family. My work has been really great; they totally support what I’m doing (and) let me have as much as I want off. That’s amazing; not a lot of jobs would let you do that.”

On fans: “Oh my gosh, it’s so great. (I’m hearing) from all over the world. People are sending encouraging e-mails. Someone even started a fan club.”

On what she do with the $1 million prize:

“I would probably buy my mom a new car. She drives like a $300 car (that) breaks down all the time. I would take my brothers on a trip; they have never been on a proper vacation. I would save a lot of it, and maybe go shopping.”

I just posted the video of Jessica Price’s semifinal performance. Then, I realized that I could post all of the videos from tonight’s America’s Got Talent in one post. Not too bad.

In the following video you’ll see the America’s Got Talent semifinal performances of:
Extreme Dance FX
James Gang
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears
Elite
Cadence
Ronny B
Jessica Price
Shimshi
Neal Boyd
DC Cowboys

Extreme Dance FX – I’m amazingly surprised by how much I liked this act. By the time the judges finished with them I was almost crying. Don’t ask me where that came from. I guess I just felt for them working so many hours to try and be successful. I hope they stick around for a while.
James Gang – I’m really surprised that this act wasn’t shown more on the previous episodes. I think that will be a major disadvantage for them. They definitely have something unique that I’d like to see more, but I’m afraid this performance isn’t probably enough.
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears – Just not my thing. Bad choice of song and I just don’t like Britney Spears so I’m completely biased.
Elite – Cute little act, but looked a little too fake for me tonight. A few cool little moves, but it looked too programed to me.
Cadence – Interesting and the water was a nice touch, but just hard to really really enjoy since I’ve seen Blue Man live and Blue Man Group is so much better of a production.
Ronny B – Complete joke of the show. The Kashif of this season and should have never made it through. For once, I agree with the Hoff.
Jessica Price – You already know she’s my favorite. You can read my other thoughts on Jessica’s semi performance in the previous post. I still love her.
Shimshi – A little slow to get to the point and he needed to explain the trick a bit more. I thought he tore the card and was going to put it back together later. It wasn’t until the end that I realized the tear was to just make sure he didn’t swap cards. If he cleared that up I wouldn’t have been as disappointed with the trick since I wanted to see the card go back together. I disagree with Piers. The card trick was fine if it had been executed correctly.
Neal Boyd – Quite the singer. Good choice of song. I wonder if all the high praise from Piers and the judges will stop people from voting for him. Wouldn’t be the first time the judges have ruined a great talent.
DC Cowboys – Not quite as much of a joke as Ronny B, but still not good. It seemed like guys trying to girls’ dance moves. Didn’t feel right. Didn’t look right. Let’s hope they’re done. I really don’t want to watch them anymore.