Welcome to Pure America's Got Talent

I’m not sure exactly why, but Shaun Smith’s audition stood out the most to me for his group of BGT semi finalists. He chose a song that would be super popular thanks to U2. He executed it fairly well. Simon Cowell threw him a bone and recognized that he’s only 17 years old right now. That’s another great storyline.

One thing I have to say is that the camera work was horrible on his act. When he went to hit the high note, the camera work killed it for me. That aside, I’m really glad that Shaun Smith will be a finalist on Britain’s Got Talent 2009.

Check out the BGT semi final performance of Shaun Smith singing “With or Without You” by U2

I must admit that I wasn’t all that happy to see another dance group as a finalist on Britain’s Got Talent. Don’t get me wrong, Flawless was pretty good. They were precise and did some ok tricks. However, their tricks weren’t over the top special. Diversity wasn’t all that much better than Flawless, but Diversity was much more entertaining than Flawless.

Either way, Flawless and Diversity are both in the finals and they’ll both be fun to watch. Maybe they should just do one really cool dance off where they battle to see who wins. All of that said, I’d be surprised if either of these dance groups wins the show. One of the singers is going to probably get all the votes and win.

From what I can tell, it seems like Flawless used the following music as part of their BGT semi final performance: Beggin’ by Mad’con , The A – Team Tune

Fair or not, when I watched Gareth Oliver on Britain’s Got Talent I couldn’t help but compare him to America’s Got Talent winner, Terry Fator. In making that comparison, Gareth is super talented, but not even close to the talent that Terry Fator has. I really think that Gareth could get to the level of Terry Fator, but he’s not there yet.

Yes, I know I’m talking about a ventriloquist. I felt the same way about Terry on America’s Got Talent. He really seemed like a one trick pony. However, once I saw Terry Fator’s 2 hour show live and laughed the whole time I decided to change my opinion. With all of that said, I think that Gareth Oliver has a really bright future. The ability to throw your voice like he did is a great talent to have.

Check out Gareth Oliver’s BGT semi final audition singing the song “‘O Sole Mio” by Luciano Pavarotti (and every other Italian artist known to man)

Watching that performance. I think that the judges were right to not make him a Britain’s Got Talent finalist.

I must admit that the first time I saw Susan Boyle I really enjoyed her story. I was a little disappointed when I found out some background information on Susan Boyle. However, the story of Susan Boyle is still really fantastic even if a bit doctored.

What is really disappointing to me is Susan Boyle’s semi final performance on Britain’s Got Talent. You can see it for yourself. Here’s Susan Boyle singing “Memory” from Lloyd Webber’s Cats

Simon Cowell was right about not wanting to be in Susan Boyle’s shoes. Susan did pick it up a little about half way through her performance, but the beginning of her performance was awful. If it was anyone but Susan, Piers and Simon would have both buzzed her off the stage. I think the problem is when the song goes high, Susan isn’t very good.

I’m not really upset with Susan. She is living the dream and many people have been inspired thanks to her. That’s a wonderful thing. I just can’t believe that Simon Cowell would give her a standing ovation after that performance. Maybe the standing ovation was for Susan’s media tour and not for her singing.

Now that I’ve sounded like a downer, I loved this episode of BGT. Almost every single act was incredibly entertaining to watch.

I thought it might be worthwhile showing a list of semi finalists with a few of my favorites in bold. Lots of great talent in Britain!! Some of them haven’t really been featured, so it’s hard to say, but I’ll do what I can.

Aidan Davis – Dancer
Ben and Becky – Ballroom Dancers
Brit Chix – Rock Band
Callum Francis – Musical Theatre
Darth Jackson – Michael Jackson/ Darth Vader Impersonator
DCD Seniors – Dance Troupe
Diversity – Street Dancers
DJ Talent – Rapper
Dream Bears – Comedy Dancers
Fabia Cerra – Burlesque Dancer
Faces of Disco – Comedy Dancers
Flawless – Street Dancers
Floral High Notes – Flower Arranging and Opera Singing
Fred Bowers – Breakdancer
Gareth Oliver – Comedy Impersonator
Good Evans – Family Singing Group
Greg Pritchard – Male Soprano
Harmony – Musical Theatre
Hollie Steel – Singer/ Dancer
Hot Honeyz – Dancers
Jackie Prescott and Tippy Toes – Dog Act
Jamie Pugh – Singer
Julia Naidenko – Belly Dancer (yes, this is a completely bias choice on my part)
Julian Smith – Saxophonist
Kay Oresanya – The Living Saxophone
Luke Clements – Juggler/ Street Performer
Mama Trish – Drag Act
Martin Machum – Guitarist
MD Showgroup – Dancers
Merlin Cadogan – Physical Performer
Natalie Okri – Singer
Nick Hell – Street Performer
Shaheen Jafargholi – Singer
Shaun Smith – Singer
Stavros Flatly – Comedy Dancers
Sue Son – Violinist
Sugarfree – Street Dancers
Susan Boyle – Singer (She might be a favorite, but she’s not really my favorite)
The Barrow Boys – Wheelbarrow Dancing
2 Grand – Singers

The official America’s Got Talent audition website just announced that they are teaming up with the Today show (yes, that today show on NBC) to hold the last chance auditions for America’s Got Talent 2009. Check out a portion of what they posted on their site about the auditions:

America’s Got Talent is teaming up with the Today show to hold the last open auditions for the 2009 season.

On Thursday morning, May 14, anyone who wants to show off their talent can come to the Today show studio in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Registration kicks off at 6am right in front of the Today show studios. You can strut your stuff for Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry and Al Roker.

It’s not only your last chance to be on this season of America’s Got Talent, but three acts will be chosen to perform live on the Today show the following week.

Looks like a really cool connection and great exposure for America’s Got Talent to be on the Today show. I’ll have to watch and see if I can find a video of the Today show performances. Glad to see that the show is really reaching out in fun ways like the Today show and my previous post about America’s Got Talent and MySpace.

Tomorrow is the last day for the live auditions. Houston will be wrapping things up tomorrow (see the official AGT website for details). However, all is not lost if you are someone who wants to still get in on America’s Got Talent 2009. Check out the following video they just put out from Nick Cannon talking about America’s Got Talent’s partnership with MySpace.

Here’s the link to America’s Got Talent on Myspace. I like this option since the internet is universal and so everyone can enter regardless of where they live.

I also got the following email from America’s Got Talent that talks about their online video submission entry form (DISCLAIMER: This is a fan site and does not officially represent America’s Got Talent, Fremantle Media or NBC). The following email is just what I received in my inbox from the show. Take it for what it’s worth. It is cool to note that the email says they’ll watch every video submission. Nice to see that in writing.

DISCLAIMER: If you have auditioned in person, submitted a DVD or uploaded a video from September 2008 until now, please disregard this email. This will be the last communication you receive by email for the America’s Got Talent 2009 season.

Hello From America’s Got Talent!

Season 4 auditions will be coming to a close soon – But we’re not done yet!

Auditions will be held in Houston May 9th and 10th. There’s still time to come strut your stuff and be a part of the best season yet of America’s Got Talent.

We’ve enjoyed seeing talented acts from across the nation perform at our auditions, but we haven’t seen YOU!

We regret that you weren’t able to make it to your in-person audition, and we wanted to let you know that we would love to see your talent on video!

The video submission deadline has been extended to May 15th, which means you still have a chance to be our next million-dollar winner!

We watch every submission, and if yours is selected, we could be flying you to audition for David, Sharon and Pierce on the show!

Video submissions should be 2-3 minutes in length with any music performed being a “cover version,” of a popular, published song. You can upload your video at www.NBC.com/AGT by signing up for, or logging into, mynbc.

To send in your video, download and fill out the contestant paperwork at www.NBC.com/AGT and send it to us with your DVD, DV or VHS audition to:

America’s Got Talent, Season 4
727 W. Magnolia Blvd., #808
Burbank, CA 91505

Auditions will be over soon. Don’t wait! Any act, any age, America’s Got Talent wants to see your talent today!

Thanks for your continued interest in America’s Got Talent and don’t forget to log on to www.AGTAuditions.com for event info, the latest news, and fun clips. Send in your video today or upload it directly at www.NBC.com/AGT!

Good Luck!

America’s Got Talent

For those wondering why I got an email saying “We’ve enjoyed seeing talented acts from across the nation perform at our auditions, but we haven’t seen YOU!” Well, let’s just say I considered going to the auditions with a laptop computer, dressed up like a nerd and blogging about the experience. Only problem is that I don’t think they’d let me take my laptop into the audition. Maybe next year I should try.

I know this is a little late, but it was too interesting not to post about it. I’ve previously called out Donald Braswell from America’s Got Talent for not being a real underdog story. I just explained that Donald had been singing as the three tenors in San Antonio before going on America’s Got Talent and after his surgery. That didn’t seem quite right for me. I was blaming the producers as much as I was Donald, but that didn’t stop Donald Braswell fans from going on about how great Donald was. Turns out I love those fans, because they bring a nice bit of traffic to my site;-)

Well, in a little bit different way, I guess Susan Boyle, of Britain’s Got Talent fame, has been called out by BuddyTV as well. Here’s what they uncovered/implied about Susan Boyle:

• Britain’s Got Talent found Susan, not Susan finding BGT
• Simon Cowell new about Susan Boyle well before she was on stage and so his reaction was disingenuous
• Susan Boyle has been kissed (I added this one from an interview I saw Susan Boyle do)

At the end of the day, Susan Boyle has inspired millions. Certainly it was well contrived on the part of Britain’s Got Talent. Now that I’ve seen the audition process up close on this blog, I can see how there’s no way Simon Cowell didn’t know about Susan before he saw her. I guess we can say that Simon is a great actor. He sold it.

At the end of the day, it rubs off a little of the shine that was on Susan before, but it’s still amazing that “frumpy” Susan Boyle can sing like that. Should be fun to see her in the next rounds after being so famous.

Check out the video of Faryl Smith’s visit to the US and the Ellen Show including a song from Faryl called “The River of Light(The Blue Danube)”:

Man, I just love her accent. Faryl Smith was from Britain’s Got Talent for those who don’t know her. Nice to see Faryl doing so well. She definitely has a lot of talent.

UPDATE: Here’s a really nice article on Faryl Smith talking about Faryl’s deal signing and really trying to dig a little deeper into the life of Faryl. I think it’s cool that she turned down Simon. I didn’t know that was possible.