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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 Pre-Season Hype Train: Golden Buzzers and Leaked Performances!

It’s a big week for the Got Talent franchise: BGT Semi-Finals have begun (I couldn’t get the stream up in time but I will watch the performances later today and get back to you on that front!) and tomorrow is the AGT Season 13 premiere!

Right now it’s looking like the format of the show will remain in line with the previous three seasons; the Live Shows don’t start until August, so it’s probably safe to assume the Judge Cuts episodes will start airing in July and we’ll be getting Auditions until then. Also, the Golden Buzzer is confirmed to be back, and we already have some hints on who we’ll be seeing get one:

Simon: Used his on the first day (though we may not see it the first episode, since auditions are aired out of order) for someone with a “great story”. That’s pretty typical for him.

Heidi: 15-year-old singer. Also typical. (Did she not learn her lesson from last season when her’s was the first of the GB’s to be eliminated?)

Howie: Is being more picky with his choice this time but gave no hints on what kind of act it would be.

Tyra: An international act (6000 miles away from California, to be specific) who Simon said was even better than his own choice. From the sounds of it, she chose a variety act, which earns her points with me since 8/9 of last season’s Golden Buzzer’s were used on singers.

Mel B: ??? (No hints here!)

AGT social media has also already treated us to a few “leaks” (but are they really leaks if the show itself is releasing them?) of acts we’ll be seeing this season!

Okay, I’m really excited about Flau’jae. We haven’t actually seen a lot of rap artists on AGT, at least not recently, so I love that she’s bringing in something fresh. She’s also pulling no punches right from the get-go. No doubt she’ll be controversial – we all know the politics-heavy acts have had some difficulty with the audience in the past, and the topic of gun violence is a heated debate in the United States right now – but I have a feeling this kind of serious, passionate performance is going to go over better than the comedy-based political acts we’ve seen in recent seasons. That’s not to say their won’t be detractors – I’m sure there’ll be plenty – but I have a feeling Flau’jae is going to be a top favorite for the people who do really connect with her and her message. If she doesn’t hold back and continues to go for really big and poignant topics like this, I think she’ll be around for awhile.

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog lately, you’ll know my content has kind of fallen by the wayside these past few months. One thing I was intending to do back when auditions and Judge Cuts were filming was a post with the Golden Buzzer hints and other AG-tea I had. I mention this now because one of those tidbits was the fact that this guy was auditioning for the show. I don’t think the acts are technically allowed to reveal they auditioned until shortly before their episode airs, but Shin Lim’s participation in this season has been a pretty open secret since late last year when he mentioned it in a YouTube interview, and I’ve also seen him mention it on Instagram a couple times. For those who don’t know, Shin Lim is quite a big deal in the magic community, performing all over the world including fooling Penn & Teller twice on Fool Us. He’s mentioned wanting to try out some new material on AGT, so if the allow him to show a variety of his talents and we don’t get any technical malfunctions, I think he has a really good chance at making it all the way to the Finals, something none of the magic acts from Season 12 managed to accomplish.

May 28, 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!

Win The Ultimate Grace VanderWaal Fan Experience

AGT Season 11 champ Grace VanderWaal is running a contest for her fans!

Grace VanderWaal is inviting 20 FANS and their +1 to join her for an intimate and private performance at an undisclosed location in the New York area on January 20th, 2018. The location will be revealed to 20 FANS lucky enough to be chosen, the day prior to the performance.

We will take submissions until December 30th at midnight EST and the winners will be contacted via email on January 1, 2018.

You can get more details and enter the contest here, and check out Grace’s TODAY Show performance below!

December 29, 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!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM PURE AMERICA’S GOT TALENT!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of our readers! I know I just posted yesterday, but I found even more Christmas goodies from some of our favorite America’s Got Talent alum, so I put together a fun little playlist to celebrate the season! I also wanted to thank everyone for helping Pure AGT grow even more after our comeback last year. We have a lot more planned for 2018, including new ventures to make the site even more fun and interactive, previously-announced coverage of the upcoming season of Britain’s Got Talent, and of course all the buzz and news on AGT Season 13. Enjoy the holidays and I’ll see you in the new year!

December 24, 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!

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!

New Music From Some AGT Favorites! – Alumni Update

There is also a “behind the scenes” video up on her YouTube Channel.AGT Alumni have released some cool music over the past few days! Grace VanderWaal‘s album Just The Beginning came out a few weeks ago, but she dropped a new video for the song “So Much More Than This” on Monday. I love the message of the song; it’s something I can personally stand to keep in mind a bit more, which goes to show Grace is wise beyond her years. The video is lighthearted and uplifting, which definitely compliments the song.

Getting into the holiday spirit, Season 12 finalist Laura Bretan released her own version of “Silent Night” today. The track will be released on all streaming platforms this Friday, December 8, but for now it is exclusively available for listen via YouTube.

Lindsey Stirling released another music video complimentary to her Warmer in the Winter Christmas album last week, this time for “Carol of the Bells”. There is also a “behind the scenes” video up on her YouTube Channel.

To end today’s post off, I’d like to let everyone know I’m in the midst of a personal project for the month I’m calling “Blogmas” which entails me putting up one blog post every day until Christmas. The catch is since I write for several blogs and would also like to include some more random and personal entries (especially seeing how dead the reality TV world is this time of year) not all installments are going up on the same site so I have a masterpost I’m updating with links to each new entry as I post them (in fact, this very post is today’s installment!). It’d be really cool if I could get some people from each of my blogs’s respective readerships to go check it out and see what else I do, but if not I’ll be back here on Pure AGT with at least two more posts by the end of the month, and hopefully we’ll get some new information on the new Got Talent seasons soon!

December 6, 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!

Pure America’s Got Talent Season 12 Auditions Week 6: Live Blog!

Hey all! I’m back for another week of live-blogging! This is the last week of auditions and will feature Heidi’s Golden Buzzer, so I’ll have all my info for my upcoming post about those.

I didn’t catch their name, but I really liked the boy band that started the night off, especially the fact that they formed on their own and still sounded so good together!

The tango group was nice, but not particularly interesting. Unless they add some more excitement, I don’t see them going very far.

Hmmmm I’m pretty sure we’ve heard “I’ll Stand By You” on this show recently. Seems to be a lot of repeated songs lately; I think they might have a list the auditionees have to pick from. I tuned out of the backstory (sorry) but she has a nice voice and all.

Okay, that was probably the least remarkable Golden Buzzer act I’ve seen since I stared watching the show. Angie is a good singer, but she doesn’t stick out to me as some of the others. (Also I don’t think she really NEEDED it; like she wasn’t in danger of not being sent through or anything, but that’s for another post……)

So we got a full five-minute segment of a child singer with a tragic backstory but the unique and exciting acts get relegated to a montage. Sounds about right. :/

YAY A COMEDIAN! This guy seems adorable and funny. I’m so glad he’s going through!

Oh wow. This anti-gravity act is AMAZING! Now THIS is what I tune into AGT for! Truly something I could see in Vegas. WHERE’S HER GOLDEN BUZZER, HUH?

I loved the husband/wife balancing duo! The creativity with the skateboards was great, and I laughed at “guess my mom knows we’re married now”. I’m concerned that the act isn’t long for this show, since balancers don’t usually seem to go very far, but I’ll enjoy this one while it lasts.

Hey! A male singer who’s bit older than the ones we usually see on AGT! That’s pretty cool. He did a great job and I’m glad he got through. With the age restrictions on some of the other singing shows, I’m glad he’s here and I think I’d like to see him go far.

Fun dance act with the animation to bring us back from commercial break! Lol at Simon seeing two people dancing. XD

Totally here for this father-son dance/gymnastics act! (With more evidence that there might be a set song list, since we’ve heard “Sax” several times over the past two seasons now.) Legitimately one of my favorites of the night. Can’t wait to see them again!

Oooo “Mirror Image”…sounds like a pretty cool act, even though I have no idea what they’re going to do yet!

Wow, they sound really good together and dance like no one is watching! I’m here for this. They definitely have star quality!

Oh man. What even is this….props to them for working food into an AGT act, but it seemed kind of miessily executed. They might be onto something, though.

“I haven’t got a Golden Buzzer so I can’t help you.” I hope moments like this makes the judges wake up and realize they may have lost sight on the true purpose of the GB.

Oh man…..we’re ending on a posthumous airing of an audition? Oh man……(don’t worry, I won’t snark on this one).

So cool that he sang to his patients! I bet it really brightened heir day, because his voice was lovely.

Rest in Peace, Brandon Rogers. Everyone else, I’ll see you soon.

July 11, 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!

Pure AGT Season 11 Quarter-Finals Week 3 – Power Rankings

The hiatus is over, and last night AGT returned for the final show of the Quarter-Finals! I actually think most of the acts were pretty much on par with each other last night compared to the mixed bag we got the first two weeks; I was mildly impressed by most of them, though not really “blown away” by anyone. Here is my guess for the order of who got the most to least votes, and remember: this is a prediction of what I think tonight’s result will be, not a ranking of how I personally felt about the performances.

1. Grace VanderWaal – This girl went viral after her audition performance aired, and I don’t think her fanbase is letting up anytime soon! A lot of people seemed even more impressed by her this time, and while I could tell she was nervous, it seems, like Howie said lat night, her imperfections make her all the more perfect in the eyes of the public.

2. Brian Justin Crum – Brian has a great voice, but I can’t even remember what song he sang last night. However, he seems to have a legion of fans who are voting like crazy for him, so I am fully expecting him to move on to the Semi-Finals.

3. Malevo – I enjoyed last night’s performance much more than their last one, I guess because they seemed more polished this time around. This act certainly does seem like it would fit right home in Vegas, and I think their uniqueness among the other contestants this season and their touching backstory.

4. The Passing Zone – Even though their act was a repeat from something they did last time they were on this show, the audience still seemed to love it (though most of them probably don’t remember the last time they did it since it was over a decade ago). I found them very entertaining last night (as always) and I think they have a good chance at escaping the Dunkin’ Save zone this round.

5. Linkin’ Bridge – This is another group with an emotional backstory and between that and the amount of praise they got from the judges after their performance I think we’ll be seeing them in the Semi-Finals, whether it be from votes, the Dunkin’ Save, or the Judges’ Save. I put them in this spot because I think their story garnered them a lot of votes and people seem to think they’re very talented, even though I didn’t enjoy this performance as much as previous ones they’ve done. Something in their voices just seemed a bit off to me last night.

6. Blake Vogt – I continue to be very impressed by Blake and his performance this week was my favorite of the evening, but I haven’t seen a lot of buzz surrounding him and of the votecards I’ve seen people are usually giving him 5-8 votes out of a possible 10. I think he’ll at least have a chance of being saved, but I’m not sure about automatically going through based on votes alone.

7. Edgar – I don’t know what it is about this group, but I just love them. They give me a happy feeling. And they seem to be getting a pretty positive response overall, but I don’t think they’re going to crack Top 5 tonight simply because their performance just didn’t seem as “big” as some of the other ones in the lineup.Wouldn’t be surprised to see them on middle ground tonight, but not sure whether or not they’ll be saved.

8. Kadan Bart and Brooklyn Rockett – These two are quite entertaining and know how to put on a show, but for some reason it seems they sort of faded away in a lot of people’s minds. Maybe it was because of their early running spot, maybe it was because they were overshadowed by other variety acts, but I think the best they can hope for tonight is to be on the bubble.

9. Julia Scotti – I really enjoyed Julia’s performance last night, but she’s another one who seems to have fallen through the cracks in the minds of the viewers, and being controversial due to being transgender probably won’t help the matter given who a good chunk of the AGT audience is. It’s be nice to see her get a chance at the Dunkin’ Save or to be saved by the judges, and I think there’s a chance of that happening, but I’m just not sure yet whether or not she managed to get there.

10. Ronee Martin – Ronee is a very talented singer, but between going early in the show and being a relatively simple act, I have a feeling she is yet another one who people might have forgotten about, though I think there’s a small chance she could be on the Dunkin’ Save bubble tonight.

11. Vello Vaher – So, this act was very slow, and I didn’t really understand the relevance of the pirate theme. Vello also seems to be getting pretty repetitive in his performances. He has an entertaining personality, but I think tonight will be the end of the road for him on this show, even after the fan outcry regarding Simon’s buzzer.

12. Alla and Daniel – This is the other act I think we’ll be saying goodbye to for sure. They’re cute, but again, the performance was very similar to what we’ve seen from them before. And maybe I’ve been spoiled from watching So You Think You Can Dance Next Gen all summer, but it’s very obvious that Daniel doesn’t match his mother in skill level yet, which is understandable, but was unfortunately a detriment to their act last night.

If the three I think are in the Dunkin’ Save end up there, I think Blake or MAYBE Edgar will be saved and from there if Blake is one of the two left he will be saved by the judges, Let me know your thoughts on this week’s acts, and I’ll be back next week for the start of the Semi-Finals!

August 24, 2016 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!