Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

I previously posted a poll to see which of the final 10 members of the America’s Got Talent top 40 would make it to the top 20. Only 5 of the 10 could go, and sure enough, the poll was completely accurate in predicting who would make it to the top 20 of America’s Got Talent. Thanks for the nearly 500 votes that were cast.

The following is the results with a few thoughts for each of the final 5 members of the AGT top 20:

Donald Braswell – I think I’ve probably written enough about Donald. He’s done some professional work in the past which makes him slightly less endearing. However, at the end of the day he deserved to be voted in to the top 20.
Eli Mattson – Incredible talent. If America didn’t vote him into the top 20, then there is something wrong with America, because there is certainly nothing wrong with Eli.
Kaitlyn Maher – She’s 4 years old. Looking at the other competition in this group of 10, I’m glad she made it. However, I don’t really see her going much farther.
Nuttin’ But Stringz – Incredible mix of hip hop and classical music with some real style. Amazing stuff always.
The Tapping Dads – Not my favorite thing even if I love dads. However, definitely better than the rest of the competition in this group of 10.

Bryan Cheatham – Not a bad singer, but not a great one either. I was just always disappointed that he didn’t sing and do Chip N Dale stuff. That would take talent to do both and pull it off.
Dallas Desperados Dancers – Another cheerleading group. Wrong show for this group I think. Come with something I haven’t seen at nearly all the sporting events I go to and then we can talk.
Flambeaux – After his top 40 performance, I don’t think anyone would really want to keep him around.
Indiggo – 2 Train Wrecks!! Pretty train wrecks, but so glad they’re gone.
Dorae Saunders – Lots of energe and passion, but maybe I’m just tired of the cross dressing impersonators. The simple fact that there were so many of them says that it doesn’t take as much talent as we might have thouhgt.

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.

Someone has compiled a nice short video of America’s Got Talent top 40 results show. It’s in 2 parts and shows almost all of the top 40.

Part 1 – America’s Got Talent Top 40

Part 2 – America’s Got Talent Top 40 (starts with my favorite contestant Jessica Price)

Here’s the list of acts in the top 40. I’m missing a couple of them, but this is what they showed on the results show:
Jonathan Arons, New York, New York (dancing musician)
Indiggo from New York, New York (twin singers)
Nuttin’ But Stringz, Jamaica Queens, New York (musicians)
Kaitlyn Maher, Ashburn, Virginia (four-year-old singer)
Slippery Kittens, Salt Lake City, Utah (burlesque dancers)
Jonathan Burkin, Clyde, Ohio (baton twirler)
Derrick Barry, Modesto, California (Britney Spears impersonator)
Sick Step, Los Angeles/ Orange County, California (dance crew)
Extreme Dance FX, West Covina, California (dance group)
Neal E. Boyd, Silkeston, Missouri (opera singer)
Eli Mattson, Door County, Wisconsin (singer/musician)
The Taubl Family, New Haven, Connecticut (musicians)
D.C. Cowboys Dance Company, Washington, D.C. (dance group)
Joseph Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska (Elvis impersonator)
Beyond Belief Dance Company, Mesquite, Texas (dance troupe)
Paul Salos, Garland, Texas (Frank Sinatra impersonator)
George the Giant, Bakersfield, California (giant/side show performer)
Jessica Price, Freeport, Michigan (singer/musician)
Alex “Elite” Pyles, Galax, Virginia (martial arts)
Sarah Lenore, Plymouth, Michigan (singer/musician)
Flambeaux, New York, New York (fire performance artist)
The James Gang, New York, New York (performance artists)
Texas State Strutters, San Marcos, Texas (dance troupe)
Ronny B, Honolulu, Hawaii (singer/dancer)
Queen Emily, Stockton, California (singer)
The Cadence, Springfield, Missouri (drummers)
The Tapping Dads, Temecula, California (tap dancers)
Shimshi, Las Vegas, Nevada (magician)
Matthew Piazzi, New York, New York (impressionist)
Kazual, Columbus, Georgia (boy band)
Shequida (Gary Hall), New York, New York (operatic drag queen)
The Wright Kids, Rocky Mount, Virginia (family band)
Michael Strelo-Smith, Castro Valley, California (opera singer)
Spc. Daniel Jens, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (singer/musician)
Bruce Block, St. Joseph, Michigan (performance artist)
Dorae Saunders, Columbia, South Carolina (Tina Turner impersonator)
Bryan Cheatham, Dallas, Texas (singer)
ZOOperstars, Louisville, Kentucky (acrobatic dance troupe)
Dallas Desperados Dancers, Dallas, Texas (cheerleading squad)

Now we’ll just have to wait until after the Olympics to see them.