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Music from America’s Got Talent Semi Finals – Part 1

The first episode of the live performance semifinals was broadcast from Los Angeles, California on August 26, 2008. Below you’ll find a list of all the music that was performed on the live America’s Got Talent performance of these 10 contestants.

If you’re looking for the video of their performances, you can find it here. Otherwise, you can look through America’s Got Talent music.

Acts that were eliminated include:

* Derrick Barry
o General: Male Britney Spears impersonator
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Performed to “Toxic”. Britney Spears - In the Zone - Toxic
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performed to “Gimme More.” Britney Spears - Gimme More - Single - Gimme More
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “…Baby One More Time” Britney Spears - Baby One More Time - ...Baby One More Time, received an X from Piers for not “wowing” him
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

* Ronny B
o General: Ron Belala, singer and dancer
o Preliminaries, Week 6: Danced and sang to “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie Lionel Richie - Now That's What I Call the 80s - All Night Long. David disliked his performance, saying “This is a talent show, not a freak show.”
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin Ricky Martin - Sound Loaded - She Bangs. Hasselhoff said in an interview he had “0” talent.
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

* The DC Cowboys
o General: All-male dance troupe
o Preliminaries, Week 2: danced to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” by Big & Rich. Big & Rich - Horse of a Different Color - Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown.
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. Kenny Loggins - Footloose (15th Anniversary Collectors' Edition) - Footloose
o Semifinals (Part 2): Eliminated

Acts that are still in the competition are:

* Extreme Dance FX
o General: contemporary young clog team
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown.
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Push It by Salt-n-Pepa” Salt-N-Pepa - The Hip Hop Box - Push It
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* The Cadence
o General: Stomp-style percussion group made up mostly of college students.
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Passed through
o Las Vegas Callbacks: Performance was not shown. Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Performed to “Beat It” as made famous by Michael Jackson Michael Jackson - Thriller (25th Anniversary) [Deluxe Edition] - Beat It
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* Jessica Price
o General: 24 year old singer
o Preliminaries, Week 3: Sang “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Raitt - The Best of Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Teardrops On My Guitar” by Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift - Teardrops on My Guitar
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Sang “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (Remastered) - Time After Time
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

* Neal Boyd
o General: 32 year old insurance salesman and opera singer
o Preliminaries, Week 1: Sang “Nessun dorma” Luciano Pavarotti - Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy - Turandot, Act III, Nessun dorma! from the opera Turandot.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Unchained Melody” Righteous Brothers - The Very Best of the Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody - Unchained Melody in Italian.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Passed through
o Semifinals (Part 1): Sang “Somewhere” from the musical West Side Story Jim Bryant & Marni Nixon - West Side Story - Somewhere (Jim Bryant, Marni Nixon). Was declared the “Michael Phelps” of the competition, and the man to beat.
o Semifinals (Part 2): Passed through.

Only one of the Wild Card acts was a singer. The following is the music for that one Wild Card Act:

* Kyle Rifkin
o Preliminaries, Week 4: R&B singer. Sang “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations The Temptations - Anthology Series: The Best of the Temptations - Ain't Too Proud to Beg
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” Passed through. Boyz II Men - II - I'll Make Love to You
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated (Judges Wild Card)
o Semifinals (Part 1): Eliminated again, did not get the Wildcard slot.

August 28, 2008 I Written By

Acts Sent Home on America’s Got Talent – Great Job America

Tonight’s episode of America’s Got Talent, they sent home half of the 10 performers from last night’s semi finals. In case, you missed it, you can watch the videos of these AGT semifinalists here.

Now to take a look at who was sent home and who was saying. I’m going to put my own personal rank of who I think has the best chance of winning the competition (not necessarily who I want to win since you already know I want Jessica Price to win).

Here goes…my rankings of the first 5 contestants making it to the top 20 of America’s Got Talent:
Neal Boyd – Knockout performance, great story and seems like one of us.
Jessica Price – Incredible person with a really wonderful voice. Needs to show a bit more of her personality and America will fall at her feet voting.
Extreme Dance FX – Great commitment and their leader does a great job being the spokesperson for the group and sharing their story. Maybe not the best dance group ever, but great fun to watch.
James Gang – Really failed in their performance last night, but now they’re given a second chance. Their performance is so unique it’s hard to compare them to something else.
Cadence – Not as good as blue man group and I think that will catch up with them unless they pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Now some thoughts on those acts who got sent home tonight:
Elite – Very sad to see you go. I hope that Treasure Island does approach you. Only problem is that the scale of the pirate show is so big that they wouldn’t really see you. Plus, that show has gone nearly adult entertainment so I’m not sure how a little kid fits into their program.
Shimshi – Disappointing finish. I would have liked to see him do some more. Can he come back next year?
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears – Glad to see you gone, but I’ll be incredibly surprised if you don’t get either a gig in Las Vegas or being a body double for Britney Spears herself.
DC Cowboys – Glad I will probably never see this group perform again.
Ronny B – If I can just make it through the replays that include him, then we’ll be ok. Hopefully he enjoyed his time on the show, because I really didn’t.

The best part of this all is that I think America got it all dead right. The correct five are in the top 20 and the correct five were sent home. Plus, Elite and James Gang were just meant to be 5 and 6. America loved Elite more because she was cute and entertaining to watch, but James Gang had more potential for the future of the show.

Feel free to agree or disagree with me.

August 27, 2008 I Written By

All the Videos from Tonight’s America’s Got Talent – Semis

I just posted the video of Jessica Price’s semifinal performance. Then, I realized that I could post all of the videos from tonight’s America’s Got Talent in one post. Not too bad.

In the following video you’ll see the America’s Got Talent semifinal performances of:
Extreme Dance FX
James Gang
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears
Elite
Cadence
Ronny B
Jessica Price
Shimshi
Neal Boyd
DC Cowboys

Extreme Dance FX – I’m amazingly surprised by how much I liked this act. By the time the judges finished with them I was almost crying. Don’t ask me where that came from. I guess I just felt for them working so many hours to try and be successful. I hope they stick around for a while.
James Gang – I’m really surprised that this act wasn’t shown more on the previous episodes. I think that will be a major disadvantage for them. They definitely have something unique that I’d like to see more, but I’m afraid this performance isn’t probably enough.
Derrick Berry as Britney Spears – Just not my thing. Bad choice of song and I just don’t like Britney Spears so I’m completely biased.
Elite – Cute little act, but looked a little too fake for me tonight. A few cool little moves, but it looked too programed to me.
Cadence – Interesting and the water was a nice touch, but just hard to really really enjoy since I’ve seen Blue Man live and Blue Man Group is so much better of a production.
Ronny B – Complete joke of the show. The Kashif of this season and should have never made it through. For once, I agree with the Hoff.
Jessica Price – You already know she’s my favorite. You can read my other thoughts on Jessica’s semi performance in the previous post. I still love her.
Shimshi – A little slow to get to the point and he needed to explain the trick a bit more. I thought he tore the card and was going to put it back together later. It wasn’t until the end that I realized the tear was to just make sure he didn’t swap cards. If he cleared that up I wouldn’t have been as disappointed with the trick since I wanted to see the card go back together. I disagree with Piers. The card trick was fine if it had been executed correctly.
Neal Boyd – Quite the singer. Good choice of song. I wonder if all the high praise from Piers and the judges will stop people from voting for him. Wouldn’t be the first time the judges have ruined a great talent.
DC Cowboys – Not quite as much of a joke as Ronny B, but still not good. It seemed like guys trying to girls’ dance moves. Didn’t feel right. Didn’t look right. Let’s hope they’re done. I really don’t want to watch them anymore.

I Written By