Let's just say that I had no idea that Britain's Got Talent was on this year, but I decided to tune in for the semi finals and the grand finale! Presented by Ant and Dec and judged by David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and Ashley Banjo (previously BGT's winner and Simon Cowell's replacement due to him being ill), they all prepared for the first semi final!
The 8 acts that performed in the first semi finals were;
Fayth Ifil,
Urban Turtles,
James & Dylan Piper,
James Stott,
Imen Siar,
Steve Royle,
SOS From The Kids and
Yakub!
The first act to perform was 'Urban Turtles' (named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I believe?)- and they were actually incredible! With the variety of music that they were dancing to, including a tribute to Susan Boyle, another previous BGT finalist, I think they were great performers! Two of the turtles ended up in just their underwear and Amanda took her 'bandana' off for the turtles. There were mixed reviews from the judges, but the majority of them loved the act, but let's see what the rest of the performances come up with throughout the show!
The second act was 'James & Dylan Piper', a magical father and son from Wales! Ashley Banjo was asked to come onto the stage and pick 6 photos at random, and it was over to Dylan (the son) over video call to determine what each of the pictures were...they were all face down, so I have no idea how they were able to pull this off! Magicians and magic acts are always very impressive. The 5 images were of the Piper family, and the 6th image was Ashley Banjo holding his son as a father and son bond is very close to their hearts...ALSO the 5 images of the Piper family spelt out the word 'Micah' (the name of Ashley Banjo's new son)...I'm sure that this duo will get through to the couple, because it's such a fresh type of act, father and son, doing magic together - and as Amanda Holden said; it made the act more meaningful!
Act number three was 'Imen Siar', a 21 year old singer/songwriter from Croydon, London! I feel that she is one of those young people that has the gift of an amazing talent; her voice! The stage of her semi final performance was lit up in an orange light with a matching outfit to accompany, and she also began singing in a different language halfway through her performance which really made the song more powerful and personal!
The fourth act was 'Yakub', an eleven year old dancer! His tribute to 'Can you feel the love tonight' from The Lion King was an impressive performance with spins, turns, rolls and tricks...something I most certainly couldn't do! The only critique he got from the judges was that he needed more confidence in himself. At only eleven years old, he is at the beginning of his dancing journey and I'm sure whatever happens now, he's going to have some new dancing partners by his side to help him progress further!
Act number five was 'James Stott', an ex military commander in the Royal Marines who put his life on the line, to get through to the final...Each of the judges was tasked to pick a colour which was linked to a number. The performance was in honour of James' Grandad who was also in the military (with his number 31524); and coincidentally the judges picked the colours which linked with the numbers 3 1 5 and 2, to which James' appeared out of box 4 (and he could have had a weight dropped on his head, but luckily he didn't)...although Ashley was tempted to click the other button. Also, he's not too bad to look at, so I would love to see more of him...I mean, I'd love to see him go through to the final!
'SOS From The Kids' were the next act to perform, a group of young kids who are passionate about speaking about resolving climate change, and sing, to get their voices heard! Due to the current coronavirus restrictions, their performance was pre filmed throughout the week and shown on the projecter screen. It was a touching performance, as some of the children stated that they didn't have the rights to vote, but they can get their messages across by speaking. The lyrics included 'We don't want to kill one more living thing' which I believe it's about taking better care of our environment and the planet and actually making a change. Greta Thunberg is another activist who also promotes the need for climage change to happen, and I believe these young children are the next generation who will be affected by the actions of what we all do in today's society!
Act number seven, was Simon Cowell's golden buzzer act, 'Fayth Ifil', a 13 year old singer/songwriter in the first semi final show! After watching the video tape, it seemed as if Faith designed her own stage set, which was a simple purple and white cube with a glittery themed background behind her. Her voice is incredibly powerful for such a young girl and she put so much energy and power into her performance! I think her outfit helped the performance become a little more memorable, as she had a bright silver sparkly jacket, with matching sparkling blue trousers, silver shoes and a hairband! 'Simon was right to have Fayth in YOU' - David Walliams, 2020.
The final act from this episode was 'Steve Royle', a comedian to bring the show to an end! He brought out three black balls and began dropping them on the floor...and that lead into his first joke 'Uh the antibacterial gel has ruined my career as a magician', and his performance only got better from there! After trying to make sure his parents were logged into the video call, and reminding Alesha that since April's performance in the auditions, he wasn't able to leave his house for months...(Yeah, none of us were able to go outside because of lockdown...but Alesha was a little gullible and said 'Really??'). The rest of his performance was absolutely incredible, including his weird (but entertaining dad dancing), and ball catching...which not everyone has the great skill of doing! It was an amazing way to end the show, but was it enough to get him through to the final?
My top three acts from this evening:
Steve Royle (Comedian), James & Dylan Piper (Magicians) and Imen Siar (Singer)
'Diversity', previous winners of BGT then performed a COVID-19 inspired performance including spoken words and a dramatic performance that included the prime minister, the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the importance of the NHS and how the world changed in a matter of months. It was an amazing performance with such powerful words, dance moves and the story behind the dramatic and horrific pandemic.
The judges chose their top three acts...
FAYTH IFIL, JAMES & DYLAN PIPER and STEVE ROYLE
The judges had to pick their favourite act to send to the finale...
David Walliams chose STEVE ROYLE
Alesha Dixon chose STEVE ROYLE
Ashley Banjo chose STEVE ROYLE
...and Amanda Holden would have chosen STEVE ROYLE too
And that's Episode 1 complete!
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