Welcome to Pure America's Got Talent

I must admit that I’m in complete shock that Stavros Flatley somehow won tonight’s Britain’s Got Talent. No doubt, it’s so far the worst night of the BGT semi finals, but Simon was right about this act. It’s utter rubbish, but entertaining. That said, I thought that tonight’s performance Stavros Flatley wasn’t nearly as good as their audition. Let me explain.

The real star of this act is the son. He is incredible to watch and having his father there is a great story. Tonight, just kind of fell flat for me. I’d hoped for a little more energy. Possibly some slapping of the skin. I’m not sure exactly what, but I expected a little more out of the 2 of them. However, next time if they highlight the son a bit more, they’re going to get a lot of votes since they really are somehow entertaining.

Check out the video of Stavros Flatley in their semi final performance on Britain’s Got Talent series 3.

Welcome to the BGT Series 3 final Stavros Flatley! It should be a lot of fun to watch what you bring to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent.

Shaheen Jafargholi was definitely the highlight of tonight’s Britain’s Got Talent. Simon was completely right about tonight’s episode of Britain’s Got Talent being just weird (or did he say odd, well you get the point). It was certainly a variety show tonight and not a very good one at that. However, Shaheen was quite entertaining.

What was so shocking to me was how well spoken Shaheen was during the interview and critique. For a 12 year old, he was amazingly thoughtful in his responses to the questions. My wife noticed the same thing.

I personally think it wasn’t the best song choice, but he still did it well enough to make it to the finals so I guess it didn’t matter. I also think it’s worth mentioning that his future will be interesting once his voice starts to change. One thing is certain is that he has the ear that’s needed to be able to sing well. That’s something that will be beneficial even once his voice changes.

Check out Shaheen Jafargholi doing his BGT semi final performance to “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the musical ‘Dreamgirls’ by Jennifer Hudson

Welcome to the BGT 2009 finals Shaheen Jafargholi! You certainly deserved it.

Yes, I’m making the assumption that Susan Boyle is going to win Britain’s Got Talent. That aside, I found this little quote of Simon Cowell really interesting:

Music mogul Simon Cowell has revealed that singing sensation Susan Boyle would get a spot on America’s Got Talent provided she wins at the Britain’s Got Talent show.

“I would say to anybody who won the British show[Britain's Got Talent] that we guarantee them a spot on the American show. I think that’s a great incentive. So if it is Susan, yes,” the Sun quoted him as saying.

Of course, Simon Cowell produces both Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, so he could easily make this happen. What isn’t very clear to me is how the Britain’s Got Talent winner would participate in America’s Got Talent. It doesn’t seem fair or likely to be as a contestant on America’s Got Talent (like the article linked above seems to assume). Instead, I could easily see the winner of Britain’s Got Talent appearing as a special guest on one of the later America’s Got Talent shows. Similar to how Terry Fator came back and did a number.

Either way, I think America would love to see the winner of America’s Got Talent do a number at the finale of America’s Got Talent. Talent is talent regardless of where it comes from.

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

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.