Welcome to Pure America's Got Talent

Hello all! Here it is the long awaited music from the Las Vegas call backs!

If you do not see a song here that you’re looking for, please let us know and I will do all I can to find it, but no promises, but I promise I will try…

Las Vegas Callbacks DAY ONE

Straight to Hollywood – Katy Perry: Waking Up in Vegas

Magicians
Michael Grasso – Telepopmusik: Breathe
Murray Sawchuck – Pussycat Dolls: When I Grow Up
Chipps Cooney Intro – Bach: Air on G String

Acrobats/Movement Acts
AscenDance Audition – Master of Confusion: Dinner
Rudi Macaggi – Bond: Señorita

Classical Singers
Prince Poppycock – Giuseppe Verdi: La donna è mobile (from the opera Rigolleto)
Hannibal Means – Luciano Pavarotti: Caruso
Carlos Aponte – Man of La Mancha: Impossible Dream

Dance Acts
Hot Shot Tap Dancers Audition – The Ting Tings: Shut Up and Let Me Go
Studio One Young Beast Society – Group 1 Crew: Transcend
Lindsey Sterling – Black Eyed Peas: Pump It
Style Pros Crew – Black Eyed Peas: Rockin to the Beat
Wreckless – Kesha: Blah Blah Blah

Female Singers
Mama T – Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: Devil with the Blue Dress
Alice Tan Ripley – Tina Turner: Proud Mary
April Lane – Whitney Houston: I Have Nothing
Debra Romer – Jewel: Foolish Games

Youth Acts
Common ft. Pharrell – Universal Mind Control
Lil Chris – The Temptations: Stand By Me
Connor Doran – Alexandra Burke: Hallelujah (?)

Novelty Acts
Intro – Entrance of the Gladiators
Sally Cohn – Judy Garland: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Close – Frank Sinatra: Young at Heart

Male Singers
Paul Safy Jr – Ray Charles: Georgia
Keith Urban: Stupid Boy
Taylor Matthews – Smokey Robinson: The Tracks of My Tears
Michael Grimm – Otis Redding: Try A Little Tenderness

Results
Rob Dougan: Clubbed to Death (Matrix OST)
Leona Lewis: Run

Las Vegas Callbacks DAY TWO

Danger Acts
Nick Pike Audition Flashback
- Black Eyed Peas: I Gotta Feeling

Jeremy Vanschoonhoven
- Audition Flashback – Kevin Rudolf: Let It Rock
- Audition – Taio Cruz: Break Your Heart

Dance Groups
RNG Audition – Black Eyed Peas: Imma Be

Musical Groups
Auditions
- The Temptations: Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
- Rascal Flatts: What Hurts the Most
- Muse: Feeling Good

New Directions Audition – The Temptations: The Way You Do the Things You Do

Cristina & Ali
Audition Flashback – Miley Cyrus: The Climb
Audition – Carrie Underwood: Temporary Home

Novelty Acts – Quincy Jones: Soul Bossa Nova

Bands
Strange Familiar
Audition Flashback – Pretenders: I’ll Stand By You
Audition – Joe Cocker: Have a Little Faith

Harmonik
Audition Flashback – Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah
Audition – Josh Groban: You Raise Me Up

Auditions
Johnny Cash: You’re My Baby
Katrina & The Waves: Walking On Sunshine

Airpocalypse Audition
- Carmina Burana: O Fortuna
- Ram Jam: Black Betty from 1977

Male Singers
Auditions
- Righteous Brothers: Unchained Melody

Justin Hopkins – Peter Gabriel: In Your Eyes
Cody Joe Tillman – Dirty Vegas: Days Go By (Acoustic)
Luigi Seno – Amos Lee: Sweet Pea
Nathaniel Kenyon – Rob Thomas: Someday

Close – Coldplay: Fix You

Las Vegas Results – Leona Lewis: Footprints in the Sand

Simon Cowell isn’t my favorite person in the whole world, but it’s hard to argue with his ability to produce a TV show. Plus, he has an amazing skill as a judge on TV shows too. So, I was completely intrigued when I saw this article suggesting that Simon Cowell is planning a new TV show called “World’s Got Talent.” Sounds like the perfect spin off to his America’s Got Talent / Britain’s Got Talent shows.

Here’s some details from the article:

The show will feature acts from over 80 countries, with the winner receiving a prize of up to £1m.

A source told The Sun: “This has been Simon’s dream. It will be the biggest reality show the world’s seen. There is a huge wealth of talent out there. The best acts cross language barriers.
…
ITV and NBC are said to be involved and the show is planned to be staged at the Royal Albert Hall.

This could be really fun to watch. I can think of a lot of acts I’d like to see on this show!
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So according to the unscientific poll here at PureAmericasGotTalent.com you chose the following for the four acts to move on:

Fighting Gravity: Performance Act
Nathaniel Kenyon: Guitar/Singer
Cristina and Ali: Sister Singing Duo
Future Funk: Hip Hop Duo

How did you guys do?

First though, tonight’s musical guests:

Selena Gomez: Round and Round

Rock of Ages: I Wanna Rock
Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock
Rock of Ages: Don’t Stop Believin’

Read more…

Enough said…

UPDATE: Here’s the video of Sally Cohn and the comment (starts about 3:50):

So the first group of twelve is up… how are they going to do? Out of this twelve America is able to choose their favorite top four to move on.

Feel free to leave your comments… I apologize for the delays for the music, the computer I usually use is occupied so music from Las Vegas week onwards is going to be delayed.

You are able to choose up to four acts.

As a quick note: Twisted Trystan and Krystan had to drop from the competition, so Nick Pike was brought in one week prior to filming to fill out the Top 48. Interesting that they chose a danger act to replace a danger act.

Many thanks to Björn for helping me find the missing ones…

KungFu Heroes
- Marilyn Manson: Rock is Dead

Cristina and Ali
- Rascal Flatts: Bless the Broken Road

Airpocalypse
- Europe: Final Countdown
- The Knack: My Sharona

Hot Shot Tap Dancers
- Madcon: Beggin’

Paul Safy Jr
- Ella Fitzgerald: Cry Me a River

Future Funk
- Walter Murphy: A Fifth Of Beethoven

Sally Cohn
- Mariah Carey: Hero

Nick Pike
- Scooter: Fire

Rated Next Generation aka RNG
- Rihanna: Disturbia

Maricar

Fighting Gravity
- The Glitch Mob: How to Be Eaten By A Woman

Nathaniel Kenyon
- Hinder: Lips of an Angel

I’ve made it quite clear in the comments that I’ve finally found my favorite act for this season: the Singing Sisters. I’ll happily admit that I’m completely biased in this case. For some reason, I really like blonde girl singers (see Jessica Price and Julienne Irwin), but I love Christina and Ali’s determination and perseverance more than anything. The beauty of America’s Got Talent is that you can vote for whoever you want (at least now that we’re to Hollywood).

Let me just help you understand a little more about cystic fibrosis (CF) and my personal experience with a friend who has CF. Then, maybe you’ll understand my personal emotional connection with Christina and Ali’s performance on America’s Got Talent. Plus, hopefully you’ll have a greater appreciation for what Christina and Ali are able to accomplish.

A short description about Cystic Fibrosis:
The average life expectancy for those with CF is mid-30s, and only 47 percent survive to reach 18 years or older. Sticky mucus builds up in the lung, blocking the airways and making the child prone to many life-threatening infections. It also affects the pancreas, causing the CF sufferer to not properly digest her food.

My friend with cystic fibrosis is 56. He’s literally a walking miracle and a complete inspiration. As his neighbor and friend I would go over to his house regularly to give him what he called percussion therapy. That’s just a nice term for me going over and basically “beating” him for 30 minutes to an hour.

I’m not exaggerating. I would cup my hands and pound his chest, sides, and back (if I remember right) in three different positions. I guess the pounding helps to dislodge the mucus that builds up in the lungs that isn’t dislodged since he’s missing a chemical that the rest of us have. In one position, he would literally hang upside down off the couch and I would pound his sides while he clenched his teeth.

At one point he said, “Do you know why I do this one?” I said, “Why? He replied, “Cause all my friends that refused to do them, aren’t here anymore.” After “beating” him like this, my hands would literally hurt.

Just describing this on here, I can barely imagine Christina and Ali having to go through this type of therapy. Add in them singing with the lung problems that Cystic Fibrosis causes and their absolutely an inspiration for me.

I saw these girls first perform when I got to go and see the Las Vegas auditions taped live. Their audition performance hadn’t aired yet and so I didn’t know their story. However, when I watched Christina and Ali perform in Las Vegas I admit that my eyes welled up with tears. The same thing happened when I saw their audition. It’s too bad you didn’t get to see their full Las Vegas performance.

Certainly Christina and Ali aren’t the most talented singers that have ever graced the America’s Got Talent stage (Julienne Irwin probably wins that award for me). However, the talent they’ve shown overcoming their challenges is what makes them my favorite act on America’s Got Talent season 5.

Best of luck Singing Sisters!

Let’s be real and say it like it is. America’s Got Talent is really a popularity contest. At least once you get to Hollywood. It’s all about getting America to vote for you. So, the question is which people in the America’s Got Talent top 48 are the most popular acts and will command the most votes once we see the performances in Hollywood?

As I was watching some of the videos on NBC.com, I found a link to the “Most Viewed” videos on NBC.com. Sure, some of the videos have been up longer. Not to mention, some of the acts don’t really have videos. No doubt it’s an imperfect method to evaluate their popularity, but it’s still pretty interesting to consider. Here’s the list of acts from the Most Viewed videos from NBC.com:
Fighting Gravity
Future Funk
Michael Grimm
Alice Tan Ridley (Precious’ Mom)
Christina and Ali (Cystic Fibrosis)
Maricar (Painter)
ArcAttack
Carlos Aponte (too bad he’s already gone)

Very interesting list if I do say so myself.

Melissa pointed out in the comments how this season of America’s Got Talent has done a MUCH better job of not “pimping” various acts over other acts. Sure, they give some acts more exposure than others, but last year it was sad how much they promoted certain acts like: Voices of Glory and Kevin Skinner. It was so unfair!

This year, they’ve done a pretty great job not doing this as much. Probably the person who comes closest to it is Alice (Precious’ Mother) getting a little extra promotion. However, that kind of makes sense that the show would want to piggyback the popularity of Precious.

While there’s been a lot of complaining about the top 48 acts that they’ve chosen for AGT Hollywood, I want to also give props to the show for decreasing the pimping that was so ugly and distasteful last year.

I think it’s lame that the judges mention that they need to carry on a show in Las Vegas. I think this is by design, but they need to stop it and find a new line. First of all, why should they hold the act to this standard. It’s not like they are really getting a headline show in Las Vegas if they win. I live in Las Vegas and I never saw Kevin Skinner’s name on any billboards or any headlines.

Plus, if this is the standard, then half of the top 48 wouldn’t be there. The might be extremely talented, but they don’t stand a chance of having a show in Las Vegas. Plus, the show wants to have a nice variety of talent. This stands in opposition to the idea of finding the best Las Vegas act. So, you can’t have it both ways.

I like in Britain’s Got Talent where they get to perform for the Queen. Works out much better I think. It’s a great story and provides for the variety of acts that the show wants. Especially since it’s the Queen’s Royal Variety show.

America’s Got Talent needs to find a new line. It’s just never fit very well.