Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know the details of the top 10, because they are listed below. I’ll look for a video so you can see all the reactions on video, but here’s the results from the America’s Got Talent Top 10.

The following are the first 5 members of the America’s Got Talent top 10:
Neal Boyd
Queen Emily
Paul Salos
The Wright Kids
Jessica Price
The following 5 AGT Top 20 were sent home:
Daniel Jens
Extreme Dance FX
The Cadence
James Gang
Zooperstars

The following are the fiinal 5 members of the America’s Got Talent top 10:
Eli Mattson
Nuttin’ But Stringz
Donald Braswell
Joseph Hall
Kaitlyn Maher
The following 5 AGT Top 20 were sent home:
Jonathan Burkin
Sarah Lenore
The Tapping Dads
SickStep
The Taubl Family

I’ll be posting a poll for you to vote on which of the America’s Got Talent Top 10 should win America’s Got Talent Season 3. Yes, I’m completely biased. I’m so glad that Jessica Price is in the top 10. Thank you Piers!!

UPDATE: America’s Got Talent Top 10 Announced - Great work! Readers of Pure America’s Got Talent predicted 9/10 correct. Jonathan Burkin is the big loser since we predicted he’d make it and didn’t.

In the AGT Top 10 poll I posted yesterday, I’ve received over 3000 votes. Thanks for all those that participated.

The following are the number of votes each America’s Got Talent Top 20 contestants got on the Pure America’s Got Talent Top 10 poll.

America’s Got Talent Predictions for Part 1 of AGT Semifinals
Neal Boyd received 301 votes
Queen Emily received 287 votes
Paul Salos received 184 votes
The Wright Kids received 164 votes
Jessica Price received 154 votes
Extreme Dance FX received 127 votes
The Cadence received 127 votes
Daniel Jens received 87 votes
James Gang received 51 votes
Zooperstars received 28 votes

America’s Got Talent Predictions for Part 2 of AGT Semifinals
Eli Mattson received 360 votes
Nuttin’ But Stringz received 319 votes
Donald Braswell received 250 votes
Jonathan Burkin received 163 votes
Kaitlyn Maher received 156 votes
Sarah Lenore received 124 votes
Joseph Hall received 117 votes
The Tapping Dads received 78 votes
SickStep received 57 votes
The Taubl Family received 54 votes

If you live on the East Coast, you can already verify how good this site’s readers are at predicting the America’s Got Talent Top 10. If you’re on the West Coast like myself, then you’ll have to wait another 17 minutes. I’ll update this once I’ve seen the results.

UPDATE: America’s Got Talent Top 10 Announced - Great work! Readers of Pure America’s Got Talent predicted 9/10 correct. Jonathan Burkin is the big loser since we predicted he’d make it and didn’t.

Tomorrow night America’s Got Talent will announce the top 10 performers and the 10 performers going home. I figured why wait for tomorrow. Vote in the following 2 polls to see who readers of Pure America’s Got Talent think we’ll be making it to the top 10.

10 Performers from the first night of America’s Got Talent

10 Performers from the second night of America’s Got Talent

I did this as 2 polls, because they said that it will be the top 5 from each night. Also, I want to thank all those of you who voted in the previous America’s Got Talent poll.

The Taubl Family sang the song “When You Believe” from Disney’s The Prince of Egypt

Jonathan Burkin Performed to “Pinball Wizard” by The Who

Sarah Lenore Sang “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis

- Original Music Video
SickStep danced to Michael Jackson’s “Blame It On The Boogie”

Joseph Hall Sang “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis

Kaitlyn Maher Sang “Beauty and the Beast” from the movie Beauty and the Beast
- Céline Dion & Peabo Bryson
- Angela Lansbury
Donald Braswell II Sang “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera
- Original London Cast
- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Tapping Dads tap danced to Sing Sing Sing

Eli Mattson Sang “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys

- Original music video
Nuttin’ But Stringz

**I’m still looking for a few of the songs. If you know what they were, let me know and I’ll update the post. I’ll also keep looking and add them when I find them.

I previously posted the videos from the first 10 of America’s Got Talent top 20. Here’s the rest of the videos of the America’s Got Talent Top 20 performances: The Taubl Family, Jonathan Burkin, Sarah Lenore, SickStep, Joseph Hall, Kaitlyn Maher, Donald Braswell, The Tapping Dads, Eli Mattson, and Nuttin’ But Stringz.

**Click on the arrows on the sides to skip through the various videos.

I’ll be posting a video of Terry Fator’s performance on AGT top 20 soon. Also, check out music from Terry Fator’s CD.

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.

I think the Tapping Dads is one of the nicest stories coming out of America’s Got Talent. I’m not the biggest tap fan, but I am a big fan of dads doing something they love. Dancer blog had the following to say about the The Tapping Dads:

The Tapping Dads, a group of 18 fathers of children involved in the Temecula Dance Company in California. They are under the direction of Jimmy Peters, the AD of Temecula Dance Co., as well as choreographer Katie Morel.

Who are the Tapping Dads? “These are normal dads who got involved in their daughters’ activities,” says Peters. “They work 50-60 hours a week, and when their families go to sleep, they go to rehearsal.”

Members include: Nick Almond, Rod Amstutz, Ron Broussard, Troy Buck, Ken Davis, Mike Fekete, Matt Greenberg, John Haschak, Greg Krohnfeldt, Greg Jones, Steve Moffatt, Ed Morel, Jimmy Peters, Dean Rickard, Don Sadlon, Dave Serrano, Seferino Soto, and Rice Berkshire.

An interesting fact about Tapping Dads: “We’ve lost 500 lbs as a group. One father lost 70 lbs himself,” says Peters. “He did it through dedication and hard work.”

So what drives the Tapping Dads, who are not trained dancers, to do what they do? “We don’t want to let our daughters down,” says Peters. “We have those little faces to go home to, and we have to be able to say to them, ‘We did everything we could.’”

Maybe The Biggest Loser should add tap dancing to their workout regimen.

Check out a short video of The Tapping Dads before America’s Got Talent:

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.