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BGT Finals Today!

Hey all! I’ve been sick for the better part of this week, so naturally I used it as an excuse to stay in and watch the Britain’s Got Talent Semi-Finals. There were five shows and from each of those two acts moved on to the Finals: the act with the most audience votes, and either the second- or third-highest voted act as chosen by the judges (it’s the same thing as the judges’ save on AGT, and if there is a tie it goes to the audience vote). The judges also choose a Wildcard to perform in the Finals once the first live round is done; this year it’s a blood donation-themed choir.

One thing I was told about but didn’t get to really appreciate until I watched for myself was the wider variety of acts. Yes, most of the finalists this series are singing acts, but they covered so many different styles and genres I didn’t even care. And there were plenty of other types of performers as well, with several comedians, magicians, and dancers; way more than we’ve seen on AGT as of late.

The format is a little different than what I’ve grown accustomed to on AGT. BGT goes right from the audition round to the live Semi-Finals, with an offscreen deliberation in between to decide which acts that passed auditions will perform in the live shows. This can be a blessing for certain performers like the dance groups, balancing acts, and comedians; I often see complaints about these acts on AGT getting stale after awhile, but on BGT no act performs more than three times so the novelty generally doesn’t have time to wear off. Case in point: a balancing act made this years BGT Finals, while I can’t recall a time any of the ones on BGT have even passed the Vegas Week/Judge Cuts round.

However, there are some drawbacks: while both BGT and recent seasons of AGT have the same number of live episodes (six plus Results shows) BGT‘s all take place within a week. I suppose this method makes the show seem more like an event every year, but I like the “breathing room” we get between AGT‘s live shows that makes it easier to keep up with and allows anticipation to build for each one.

Here are some of the Finalists for Series 12 of Britain’s Got Talent! Remember: the stakes at hand are a slot in the Royal Variety Performance later this year!

June 3, 2018 I Written By

I'm obssessed with the entertainment industry, especially offbeat and nerdy things as well as those that involve live performance. The only thing I love more than geeking out over the things that entertain me is sharing in my excitement with others who share the same passions. America may have talent, but Canada has an up-and-coming blogger who is ready to take the internet by storm!

America’s Got Talent Spin-Off Announcement and Show Coverage Update

NBC has just announced a new edition of Got Talent! America’s Got Talent: The Champions will debut in the winter of the 2018-2019 season and feature previous competitors from AGT as well as international versions of the show. The Hollywood Reporter has all the details we know so far!

Speaking of international versions, I want to start covering Britain’s Got Talent as I said I would but have been having trouble with the streams and YouTube and it’s been difficult. I think I’m going to try to get everything sorted out before the live shows start and just cover that week (you guys all know I find reality TV audition rounds tedious after like two episodes anyway) even though it will probably be messy to keep up with considering it’ll be on every single evening.

And can you believe AGT Season 13 starts this month? I haven’t gotten as much info as I would have liked to but I’ll keep searching and put up a “What We Know Pre-Season” type of post within the next few weeks.

May 12, 2018 I Written By

I'm obssessed with the entertainment industry, especially offbeat and nerdy things as well as those that involve live performance. The only thing I love more than geeking out over the things that entertain me is sharing in my excitement with others who share the same passions. America may have talent, but Canada has an up-and-coming blogger who is ready to take the internet by storm!

Alumni Update – Holiday Season Edition!

Christmas is nearly upon us, which of course means lots of special holiday shows both on stage and on our TV’s!

Darci Lynne Farmer is on a roll. She’s been adding performances to her 2018 tour and has made appearances at several other live events, most recently a weekend of shows in her own hometown of Oklahoma City. Whoever is managing this girl and helping her prepare her shows deserves some mad props; in this one there were a lot of fun Christmas-themed numbers (including an appearance from Santa Claus!). There are several clips available to watch on Darci’s YouTube Channel of all these events but my favorite is this bit from one of the Oklahoma shows in which a lucky audience member got invited up onstage to get serenaded!

The 2017 Royal Variety Performance was filmed last month, and premiered on British television earlier this week. For those who don’t know, the RVP is an annual show put on to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity and is usually attended by members of the British Royal Family (this year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in the audience). A slot in the show is the Grand Prize on Britain’s Got Talent (along with a nice chunk of change, of course) so naturally this year’s winner, pianist Tokio Myers, was part of the performance. His performances are works of art and a treat for both the ears and eyes. If you’re not familiar with his work you can check out his BGT performances and his YouTube Channel. Unfortunately, I am currently unable to find his RVP clip online (I was lucky enough that things worked out for me to watch it live via stream but I believe the show is set to air on American television on Christmas Eve and in Canada on New Year’s Day) but I’ll show you his BGT Finals performance because you definitely need to witness this man in action!

On the bright side, I was able to find a video of another act in the Royal Variety Performance (thanks to the company who made his suit :P). I feel like I’ve talked about Colin Cloud way too much on here lately but you’re hearing about him yet again because this year he became the first person to compete on Britain’s Got Talent without winning (he was eliminated prior to the live shows) and wind up in a Royal Variety Performance. I think he put together a clean, concise act and I noticed a bit of a change of pace compared to what we saw from him on America’s Got Talent. Without giving too much away, there is an element of vulnerability and doubt in this performance that I know a lot of AGT fans really wanted from Colin on the show, and it’s cool too see him mixing things up a bit in that regard.

I’ll be back with more Got Talent updates soon; hopefully with some BGT news and updates on some of the acts from older seasons (AKA back before I started following everyone who graced my television screen on social media :P). This very well might end up being my last post on this blog for 2017 so if it is I would like to wish all of our readers a happy holiday season (whatever you celebrate) and new year!

December 23, 2017 I Written By

I'm obssessed with the entertainment industry, especially offbeat and nerdy things as well as those that involve live performance. The only thing I love more than geeking out over the things that entertain me is sharing in my excitement with others who share the same passions. America may have talent, but Canada has an up-and-coming blogger who is ready to take the internet by storm!

A Vegas Venue, a Seattle Church, and the Royal Variety Performance – AGT Alumni Update

We may be trucking through the off-season, but there’s been lots of news in AGT Land so far this month!

First and foremost, America’s Got Talent Live in Las Vegas was a huge success! There were some great throwbacks to the summer show as well as some new material from Darci Lynne Farmer, Angelica Hale, Preacher Lawson, and Light Balance, including a few collaborative performances! (Photo credit to Angelica Hale on Instagram.)

Her run is Vegas may be over (for now!) but Darci Lynne isn’t slowing down – she recently announced a series of shows in her hometown of Oklahoma City. Darci Lynne: Homecoming will be onstage at The Criterion on December 16-17 2017, and tickets are selling fast!

Seattle-area AGT fans have an upcoming treat of their own. Gold Creek Community Church’s annual Gold Creek Christmas show has a special twist this year: several Season 12 contestants will be performing, including singers Evie Clair, Kechi, and Christian Guardino, dancer Merrick Hanna, and dog act Patrick & Ginger! There are three performances scheduled over December 15-16, and tickets can be purchased here.

In other Season 12 alumni news, last week Colin Cloud announced his involvement in this year’s Royal Variety Performance. If you’re unfamiliar with the tradition check out the link, but the show is an annual tradition in Britain and is known for featuring a, well, variety of different performers from comedians to sideshow acts to West End stage show casts. (So basically everything we hope to see in the AGT live shows instead of an abundance of karaoke-style pop singers.) And just to give you an idea how prestigious the RVP is, a performance slot is the grand prize for AGT‘s own sister program Britain’s Got Talent. This year’s winner and representative is musician Tokio Myers, and in addition to all of the BGT champs some other alumni from AGT have participated in previous year’s performances.

The 2017 RVP is set to tape later this month and will be televised in Britain and other Commonwealth nations in December and January, but those living in America and other countries will more than likely be able to catch clips of the performances when they are inevitably uploaded to YouTube. And since I’m expanding this blog to cover BGT in the spring (and need some filler content between now and then :P) I’m planning to review the show here on Pure AGT next month! (Photo credit to Colin Cloud on Instagram.)

Finally, I’ve mostly refrained from posting about this since one of our sister sites pretty much has it covered, but AGT Season 5 alumnus Lindsey Stirling not only recently released a brand new Chirstmas album entitled Warmer in the Winter, she was officially announced as a Dancing With the Stars finalist earlier this week! The two-night Finale airs on ABC Monday November 20 at 8/7c and Tuesday November 21 at I believe 9/8c. (And I believe Lindsey also has a new music video coming out on her YouTube channel very soon!) You can check out one of her dances from this past episode below, and I’ll see you again soon with more AGT updates.

November 16, 2017 I Written By

I'm obssessed with the entertainment industry, especially offbeat and nerdy things as well as those that involve live performance. The only thing I love more than geeking out over the things that entertain me is sharing in my excitement with others who share the same passions. America may have talent, but Canada has an up-and-coming blogger who is ready to take the internet by storm!

PureAGT Season 8 POLL: Did Catapult “Rip Off” Silhouettes?

Whilst browsing around on YouTube for a clip of Catapult’s performance on last week’s premiere, I noticed something odd: almost every video of them posted had a slew of comments from angry viewers claiming that they had “ripped off” season 6 runner-up Silhouettes.  Here’s a video of them to jog your memory:

A few overseas viewers also accused Catapult of copying Attraction, the winner of the most recent season of Britain’s Got Talent:

Now while I agree that all three acts are very similar, I also think that there’s very, very few acts on any of the Talent franchises that are truly original anymore – I think it’s all been done before, and everyone’s just trying to make their mark and somehow put a fresh spin on their act.  So to really accuse any of the three of “ripping off” one another? Not really fair, IMO.  If you’re going to call out Catapult for copying Silhouettes, then you may as well call out Lightwire Theater from last season for copying Team iLuminate from season 6, and Angela Hoover for copying season 6’s Melissa Villasenor.  Almost every act shares some similarities with a previous act.

Truth be told, I was never really wowed by what Silhouettes did – just seemed like a lot of running from place to place making shapes while some schmaltzy song played.  What I like about Catapult, though, is that they actually create pictures that move, and tend to tell a story – Silhouettes seemed like they just went with a theme, as opposed to an actual narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.  Haven’t really had a chance to compare either of the two to Attraction, beyond the video I posted above, but all three appear to have different strengths & weaknesses.  But what do you think?

June 10, 2013 I Written By

Ultrasound specialist by day, entertainment blogger by night - with some amateur dancer, hair & makeup enthusiast, crazy cat lady, recreational chef, and Donnie Wahlberg/Norman Reedus fangirl peppered in to make things interesting ;-) Check out some of my other work over at puredwts.com!

Susan Boyle Was Terrible on America’s Got Talent

Honestly, did anyone really like the performance of Susan Boyle on America’s Got Talent? Sure, I get how we fell in love with Susan Boyle when she sang the first time. It was shocking that her voice was coming out of that image and that story. Her idiosyncrasies were interesting and made us laugh. They even made her endearing. However, her performance on America’s Got Talent last night was boring. She’s not a bad singer, but she’d never have been invited to the AGT stage if she hadn’t gotten so big on the stage before.

Maybe I’m wrong and there are a ton of Susan Boyle fans out there that loved her performance. If there are, more power to you. For me personally, it was terrible. I literally turned the channel. In case you missed it, you can see the video below. Am I way off base?

Susan Boyle Performs!

September 1, 2011 I Written By

Faryl Smith Interview on Ellen Show

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)”Faryl Smith - Faryl - 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.

May 1, 2009 I Written By

Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent Shocks Simon Cowell and Piers

I’d been planning to cover more of Britain’s Got Talent and just haven’t had the time. After watching the following video of Susan Boyle shocking Simon Cowell and Piers with her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream Les Misérables Original London Cast - Les Miserables (The Original London Cast) - I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, I think I might have to start making time. Check out the video of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent to see what I mean:

UPDATE: BGT has had all of the videos taken down.

From a never been kissed, awkward 47 year old to a singer that Simon Cowell actually really enjoyed. That’s what Britain’s Got Talent is all about.

April 15, 2009 I Written By

America’s Got Talent vs. Britain’s Got Talent

It’s an age old comparison. Which is better, America’s Got Talent or Britain’s Got Talent? This is a battle that goes back to the revolutionary war. Granted, it’s a little friendlier terms, but the question is still valid.

Let everyone know which show is better:

Yes, we all know that there is talent on both show. However, that doesn’t mean that one can’t be better than the other. If you haven’t seen one or the other, then go on YouTube and do some searches and then come back and vote.

March 7, 2009 I Written By

Faryl Smith’s Debut Album Introduction

One of the great Pure America’s Got Talent readers, Michael Askew, pointed me to a great little video of Faryl Smith (of Britain’s Got Talent fame) introducing her debut album which will be released March 9th. In this video Faryl Smith talks about her musical journey. There are also scenes of her photoshoot for UCJ and of her recent Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall with Katherine Jenkins. The soundtrack for the video is of Faryl Smith singing some of the songs from her debut album. Check it out:

Thanks Michael. Faryl Smith seems like she’s living up to everything Simon thought she would be.

February 6, 2009 I Written By