Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

I previously projected who I thought would win America’s Got Talent. However, I thought it might be more fun to give my favorite 5 performers from this season of America’s Got Talent season 4. A really hard job to narrow them down to 5, but here goes.

1. Jessica Price – This is really a no brainer if you’ve been reading my blog. I really enjoy listening to her sing and Jessica Price’s first AGT performance will rank as one of my favorite AGT performances ever.

2. Russian Bar Trio – Turns out this is relatively popular, but the fact that I had never seen it until AGT shoots them near the top of my list. Probably the most exciting and jaw dropping act ever done on AGT.

3. Eli Mattson – He had me at Walking in Memphis

4. Junior & Emily – Some absolutely smokingly fast salsa dancing. I know how hard it is to go that fast. Exciting to watch since you can never look away. I would have loved to see what other performances they could have brought to the show.

5. Holly Hardin – What can I say? Not the best singer by any stroke of the imagination. I think I was stolen away by her accent, naivety and pure genuine goodness (or is that the same as naivety?). She wasn’t bad on the eyes either. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed all of her performances.

Below you’ll find the best I could do at creating a list of music from those contestants eliminated during the Las Vegas Callbacks of America’s Got Talent. This list also includes music from the previous weeks from those eliminated in Las Vegas.

Here’s a link to see all the songs and music of America’s Got Talent.

A total of 113 acts made it to the Las Vegas callbacks. From those, a total of 19 of these acts where eliminated without even being given a chance to perform. The remaining 94 acts were trimmed down to a short list of 60 acts in the first of the two callback episodes, and the remaining acts were further trimmed to a Top 40 group in the second episode.

Acts that were eliminated without being given a second performance:

* Chellena Black-Harris
o Preliminaries, Week 2: singer, sang “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke.

Acts that were eliminated after the first cut, but did not make it to the top 60:

* Cafidia Stuart
o Preliminaries, Week 1: 15 year old sang Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown, but was shown being eliminated.

* Holly Hardin
o Preliminaries, Week 3: sang “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” by Jessica Simpson
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “When God-Fearing Women Get the Blues” by Martina McBride.

* Shakes
o Preliminaries, Week 6: 10 year old dancer
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Danced to “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer.

* Mia Boostrom
o Preliminaries, Shown in clip form: Sang “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys while playing the piano.

* Cat Williams
o Preliminaries, Not Shown: Passed Through
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Sang “Let The Good Times Roll” by Ray Charles.

* Randy Hanson
o Preliminaries, Week 7: Ozzy Osbourne impersonator. Sharon commented that the only way she could tell him from her husband was if he “dropped his trousers so she could take a look at the goods.” Sang “Paranoid”.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Only shown briefly in a montage.

Acts that made it to the top 60, but not the top 40:

* David Militello
o Preliminaries, Week 3: 9 year old sang “Ben” by Michael Jackson
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): sang “If We Hold On Together” by Diana Ross Passed through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated

* Holly Stone
o Preliminaries, Week 7: sang “A Broken Wing” by Martina McBride.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown. Passed through.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Eliminated

Acts that were eliminated at an unknown stage of the Las Vegas Callbacks:

* Next II None (N2N)
o Preliminaries, Week 2: family boy band performed “Bye Bye Bye” by ‘N Sync
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Not shown, but did not make the Top 40, so presumed eliminated by the judges.

* XL
o Preliminaries, Week 6: 25 year old Xavier Lewis sang “Ordinary People” by John Legend
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 1): Performance was not shown.
o Las Vegas Callbacks (Part 2): Not shown, but did not make the Top 40, so presumed eliminated by the judges.

Tonight’s America’s Got Talent was great. I love the semi finals, because that means that all (or almost all) of the acts are talented and entertaining. I must admit that no one really blew me away. I still wish that Tina Turner and Britney Spears were off the show, but they’ll be gone soon enough. There’s no way they can make the top 40.

I’m honestly not sure that anyone really blew me away on tonight’s show. There were a bunch of good acts and it was great entertainment. However, I don’t think there’s anyone that really stood out far above the rest of the crowd. That could be the nature of America’s Got Talent. At this point there still telling stories. Once we reach the top 40 we have a little better chance to see their talent in full force.

Despite tonight’s show barely showing her talent, my personal favorite has got to still be Jessica Price. Don’t ask me what it is about Jessica, but I absolutely love her. Yes, just like I loved Julienne Irwin before. I really hope that she gets to stick around to the top 40. Here’s her short clip at the very beginning of her singing.

Yes, and I also was sad to see Holly Hardin go home too. I thought she did quite well and she really does have the cutest little personality. I hope to see Holly again, but I’m afraid that we probably won’t.

Also, here’s a link to look back at other America’s Got Talent videos I’ve posted. I’m sure I’ve missed some, but I’ve got most of the best ones from 2008.