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Below you’ll find a list of all the performances and music from the America’s Got Talent Semifinalists part 4. If you’re looking for the AGT Semis videos, you can find them here. Also, here’s a link to a list of all the America’s Got Talent music from previous episodes.

The fourth episode of the live performance semifinals broadcast from Los Angeles, California on September 3, 2008 had the following performances along with links to the music they used:

Dallas Desperados Dancers
General: The dance team of the Dallas Desperados Arena Football team.
Preliminaries, Week 5: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4):

Bryan Cheatham
General: Singer, a former Chippendale dancer
Preliminaries, Week 5: Sang “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4):

Flambeaux
General: Fire breather
Preliminaries, Week 4: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Only shown briefly in a montage. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Received 3 X’s from the judges, who complained his act this time was boring, his timing was slow, and that in general his act was too scary.

Kaitlyn Maher
General: four year old singer
Preliminaries, Week 1: Sang “Somewhere Out There” by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “When You Wish Upon A Star”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Sang “What a Wonderful World” .

Dorae Saunders
General: transexual Tina Turner impersonator
Preliminaries, Week 5: Lip-synced and danced to “Proud Mary” .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performed to “The Best” .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Performed to “Disco Inferno” .

Donald Braswell
General: Former professional opera singer, his vocal cords were severed in a freak car accident eleven years back. He was told by doctors he might never speak normally again, let alone sing.
Preliminaries, Week 5: sang “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang One Day I’ll Fly Away from the musical Moulin Rouge .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated (Judges Wild Card)
Semifinals (Part 1): Won the Wildcard slot and returned to the competition.
Semifinals (Part 4): Sang “Impossible Dream” by Robert Goulet

Indiggo
General: Romanian twin sisters Mikaela and Gabriela
Preliminaries, Week 1: Sang “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra
Las Vegas Callbacks: Montage shown singing “Viva Las Vegas” . Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Sang an original song.

The Tapping Dads
General: A large group of tap dancing dads.
Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Performed to “Puttin on the Ritz”

Eli Mattson
General: Singer and pianist
Preliminaries, Week 2: Performed “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Your Song” by Elton John .
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed Through.
Semifinals (Part 4): Sang “Nobody Knows it But Me” . Osbourne commented “No dancers, no fire, no backing tracks, just talent.”

Nuttin’ But Stringz
General: Sibling violinists Tourie and Damien. They combine classical music with hip-hop.
Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 4): Their performance earned a standing ovation, including the judges.

Here’s the final performances from the America’s Got Talent Semifinals. Feel free to take a look back at videos from part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the semifinals.

The following videos include performances by the following AGT acts: Dallas Desperados Dancers, Bryan Cheatham, Flambeaux, Kaitlyn Maher, Dorae Saunders, Donald Braswell, Indiggo, The Tapping Dads, Eli Mattson, and Nuttin’ But Stringz.

**Click on the arrows on the side of the video to skip to the next AGT video.

My full evaluation of these acts and who got kicked off the show and who made the top 20 coming soon.

I think the Tapping Dads is one of the nicest stories coming out of America’s Got Talent. I’m not the biggest tap fan, but I am a big fan of dads doing something they love. Dancer blog had the following to say about the The Tapping Dads:

The Tapping Dads, a group of 18 fathers of children involved in the Temecula Dance Company in California. They are under the direction of Jimmy Peters, the AD of Temecula Dance Co., as well as choreographer Katie Morel.

Who are the Tapping Dads? “These are normal dads who got involved in their daughters’ activities,” says Peters. “They work 50-60 hours a week, and when their families go to sleep, they go to rehearsal.”

Members include: Nick Almond, Rod Amstutz, Ron Broussard, Troy Buck, Ken Davis, Mike Fekete, Matt Greenberg, John Haschak, Greg Krohnfeldt, Greg Jones, Steve Moffatt, Ed Morel, Jimmy Peters, Dean Rickard, Don Sadlon, Dave Serrano, Seferino Soto, and Rice Berkshire.

An interesting fact about Tapping Dads: “We’ve lost 500 lbs as a group. One father lost 70 lbs himself,” says Peters. “He did it through dedication and hard work.”

So what drives the Tapping Dads, who are not trained dancers, to do what they do? “We don’t want to let our daughters down,” says Peters. “We have those little faces to go home to, and we have to be able to say to them, ‘We did everything we could.’”

Maybe The Biggest Loser should add tap dancing to their workout regimen.

Check out a short video of The Tapping Dads before America’s Got Talent:

Here’s a video of Jonathan Burkin – Baton Boy from the semifinals of America’s Got Talent.

Compare that with the incredible to watch and incredibly dangerous Polynesian fireknife dancers:

I saw the world championships of Fire Knife dancing when I lived in Hawaii and they blow both of these videos away. However, I’m going to have to give the fire knife dancers the edge over quite spectacular Jonathan Burkin. Mostly because of the knifes.

Most people know that Terry Fator is now a major headliner on the Strip in Las Vegas at the Mirage. Did you know that Terry Fator has written a book about his experience going from strugging performer to Las Vegas headliner? You can preorder Terry Fator’s book Who’s the Dummy Now?: Winner of America’s Got Talent

Also, for all those Terry Fator fans, you can check out Terry Fator’s CD Lucky Guy. Below you’ll find a list of all the music from the CD:
Lucky Guy from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

I Do from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

I Remember the Days from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

Monkey Song from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

(How Do I Say) Goodbye from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

Can You Fix a Broken Heart from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

’96 Neon from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

I Can’t Believe It’s Over from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

Christmastime from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

Candi’s Got a Radio from the album Lucky Guy (2007 Remix) sung by Terry Fator

Below you’ll find a list of the various performances and music from America’s Got Talent semifinalists participating on September 2, 2008. Here’s a link to find all the AGT Semifinal videos from this batch or feel free to browse through the entire list of AGT music.

Texas State Strutters
General: precision dance team from Texas State University.
Preliminaries, Week 6: Performed to “September” as made famous by Earth, Wind, and Fire
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed to “Boogie Wonderland”

Michael Strelo-Smith
General: Opera singer who appeared on America’s Got Talent, Season 2, however, was not passed through to the live shows.
Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang “Somewhere” from the musical West Side Story
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “I Am What I Am”.

Bruce Block
General: Magician/general performer. Appeared in the previous season of the show as well.
Preliminaries, Week 5: Brock lay on a bed of nails and held a board on top of himself for his assistant to dance on and sing “Anything Goes” . Hasselhoff then asked to stand on Brock as well, to establish that the bed of nails was indeed real.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): escaped from a straitjacket
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed an act where he transformed a divided pantomime horse into a small living pony.

Shequida Hall
General: Female impersonator and operatic singer. Able to sing both in a very low bass range and a extremely high tenor range, sounding both male and female in a single performance.
Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Passed through.
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “I will Survive” completely in falsetto.

The Taubl Family
General: Family performing group. Singers and miscellaneous instruments
Preliminaries, Week 2: Performed “The Sound of Music” from the musical “The Sound of Music”
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang and performed to Umbrella by Rihanna

Jonathan Burkin
General: Baton twirler
Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Only shown briefly in a montage. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Performed to “I’m Still Standing” . His performance included large amounts of flames, a sequence with him spinning flaming batons around his neck, and a more traditional juggling sequence with the batons.

Sarah Lenore
General: Singer
Preliminaries, Week 4: Sang “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Teardrops On My Guitar” by Taylor Swift
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): “Not Ready To Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks

SickStep
General: hip hop dance troop.
Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3):

Matthew Piazzi
General: impersonator
Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Did impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Nicholson, Vince Vaughn, and George Clooney.

Joseph Hall
General: “young Elvis” impersonator
Preliminaries, Week 2: Sang “Hound Dog”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Heartbreak Hotel”
Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
Semifinals (Part 3): Sang “Jailhouse Rock”

I posted the videos from AGT Semis part 2 and all the music from AGT semis part 2.

Tonight they announced which 5 of these 10 AGT semifinalists will be going on to the AGT top 20. To me the only real shocker is the Zooperstars. I was also sad to see Jonathan Arons in the bottom 5, but other than Zooperstars I don’t see an act that he should replace. See below for my full review of the AGT top 40 acts.

5 Acts Going to the AGT Top 20
Queen Emily – She’s the queen. I think we all realized that she’d make the AGT top 20. A wonderful talent, a wonderful stage presence and a wonderful story. She’s just wonderful.
Paul Salos – I must admit that I’m not a huge Frank Sinatra guy, but this guy seems to do him pretty well. Maybe someone who knows Sinatra better than I should judge.
Wright Kids – There’s something nice, unique and innocently wonderful about this act. I think bluegrass music will be better for them, but let’s hope they choose some of the more modern bluegrass music that will be more popular with America.
Daniel Jens – I wonder how long he can last as a military man. He has a nice voice with moments of pure greatness, but also has moments where you just wonder if he should really be on the show.
Zooperstars – I always knew that the Hoff and Sharon Osborne were delusional, but there is just something deeply wrong about putting this act through over BBDC. It’s not even really a competition when you consider which one has more talent. It’s not even close and I feel very bad for BBDC. Piers was dead on with his decision. Too bad Sharon and the Hoff really screwed it up for BBDC.

5 Acts Getting Sent Home
Jonathan Arons – I can see why America didn’t keep him on the show, but he was very entertaining. The guy also has guts to go on AGT with a trombone. Probably the first and last one to do that and actually get compliments from the judges.
Beyond Belief Dance Company – Very unfortunate that we’re not going to see them again, but yet we’ll have to see Zooperstars do more or less the same routine again that we’ve already seen. What a pity. Sharon and the Hoff are fools and I’m sure they’ll later regret this decision.
Kazual – I hope the guy in this group that is a great lead will come back next year as a soloist and really knock it out of there. His voice was really great, but the group as a whole was just so so.
Slippery Kittens – Not my thing. Glad their gone. I did find it unique that such a riska act came from Salt Lake City. I think you can quickly say…not a mormon.
George the Giant – I liked a couple things he did in the beginning, but his performance in the end deserved to be sent home.

Check out the video of the actual announcement:

Most of these seemed really obvious except for Zooperstars and that was just Sharon and Hoff trying to make good television?

Part 3 of the America’s Got Talent semifinals happened tonight. I’ll talk about the results from part 2 of the semifinals in another post. In this post, you’ll find all the videos from America’s Got Talent semifinals including performances by the Texas State Strutters, Michael Strelo-Smith, Bruce Block, Shequida Hall, The Taubl Family, Jonathan Burkin, Sarah Lenore, SickStep, Matthew Piazzi and Joseph Hall.

**Click on the arrows to skip to the next AGT video.

I’ll be posting my commentary on these acts very soon along with link to the AGT semifinal music.