Britain’s Got Talent – Semi-Final 3
By Ross Levy at 1:39 pm on May 27th, 2009. Printer friendly version.
Comedy dance act Stavros Flatley and young singer Shaheen Jafargholi have became the 5th and 6th act to reach Britain’s got Talent ulitmate final this saturday after a night in which judge Simon Cowell claimed could be a train wreck.
Before last nights show Susan Boyle, Diversity, Flawless and Shaun Smith had already made it through to the final of the hit ITV show, yet as more and more people have become locked in the entertainment, the pressure was really on the acts to perform and take one more step towards their ultimate dream, £100,000 and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance.
The night started off with dance act Harmony. Consisting of two teenage girls, Megan and Demi, who sung, danced and generally entertained their way onto the stage from their auditions. Singing ‘Girls Just wanna have fun’ and jumping out a giant cake, the act seemed to win over the audience and judges recieving no buzzes and despite their comment of Not brilliant singing, they recieved some good comments from the three judges that have got Britain talking all week so far.
It was then the turn of Kay Oresayna who probably has the most bizare act of this years semi-finals-a human saxaphone. In all honesty, it probably isnt quite what the Queen would want to see on her big night out and Simon Cowell, typical Mr Nasty, was not a patient man and buzzed after a few seconds of his performance. Despite this, fellow judges to Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan showed more sympathy towards the act, joining in on various parts of the act. Whether or not they actually thought it was good or not still remains a question, its very typical of the judges to show false enjoyment to the acts in order to annoy Simon yet the audience did seem to really enjoy it.
To follow Kay was then brother and sister Ben and Becky who, in their audition, wowed judges with their ballroom dancing. Delighted to be in the final, they tried to crank up the pressure of the act, dancing with many other tricks and turns-most of which were incredibly impressive. This happiness wasnt quite shared with Simon though, responding to presenters Ant and Dec saying they cannot win the competition. This was a huge dent to the spirit of the two leaving Becky in an emotional state and after a little comfort from Piers Morgan, she cheered up a bit as she was reminded, it was all up to the public to decicde who would go through to the next stage.
Shaheen Jafargholi, when auditioning in Cardiff, the Swansea-born singer was stopped by the judges with Simon Cowell quoting “You’ve got this all wrong.” However, he got that all important second chance and sung a different song seconds later after Simons comment and bounced back dramatically winning both the audience and the judges round singing Michael Jacksons Whos lovin you. Coincadently enough, Shaheen had sung that before, on tour with stage show Thriller Live (which TF has reviewed so look around!) and this sparked some controversy with some saying that Britain’s got Talent should only be for amateurs. None the less, his performance of ‘And Im telling you Im not going’ from musical Dreamgirls won everyone over, leading to a huge uproar of applause from the whole studio and judge Piers even saying it was the best singing performance of the semi-finals so far.
With the talent bar at a high, it was then over to another act that is quite the unusual. The Barrow Boys. The act, featuring three men and their weheelbarrows, was quite impressive in their audition and even forced Simon and Piers to take away their buzzes as they though it got better. So, looking for a second-time lucky they took to the stage. Sadly, it seemed the judges did not quite believe it had the same wow-factor as last time and as a result of that Simon and Piers both buzzed and this time did not reverse it due to the lack of improvment from last time, or so they said.
On Mondays show, as you will know very well by now, dance act, Flawless cruised into the final of this series following another dance act, Diversity who won the judges choice vote on the first semi-final on Sunday. The next installment of dance troupes was slightly different from Diversity and Flawless, both of whom do more street/break dance and this act were called MD Showgroup, a dance group delivering messages on signs, posters-and on their foreheads. Their sister group, MD Productions, were knocked out of the semi-finals back in series 1 of the show, the year in which Paul Potts won and became a household name worldwide, yet MD Showgroup were determined not to let the same happen to them. Picking up no buzzes, it seemed this performance went down well, Simon Cowell in fact, who had been quite critical to previous acts all around the semi-finals even stating he liked them. Plus, with so many of them it seemed that they could be a huge contender to be in with a shout when the winners were announced later on in the show. Since it was a young dance group there would be many proud parents/friends waiting to pick up the phone for them.
It seemed like, as we headed towards the end of the nights talent, this semi-final would be the biggest range of the brilliance and down-right strange. Next up was Floral Highnotes, and well-this was strange. Combining a man picking up flowers to make them look like a hat and a singer who was un-doubtably quite good Piers Morgan stated that the Queen would like this sort of act saying “We dont know much about the Queen-but what we do know is that she likes gardening and music,” therefore linking the act and the Queen together. The same could not be quite said with the audience though, booing their performance after it had finished. It didnt go down too well with Simon either, buzzing the act in the middle of it.
But then, we had an act that fit right between brilliant and strange-an act that had a father and son, toppless, prancing around the stage doing Greek/Irish dancing. Stavros Flatley. After an audition that made all of the judges laugh (yes, all of them!) it seemed that this was an act that actually could do quite well, simply because of its comedy. But, like Simon said, the evening could wreck acts and the last spot of the show seems to go to the best act of the evening so whether or not they would do well continued to be a puzzle. However, it ended up delighting the judges casting a smile on all judges faces and a memorable end to semi-final 3.
It was then over to us the public to put through who we wanted to go to the grand final on Saturday. Meanwhile, instead of asking the judges random questions, like on Monday nights show (where violin group Escala played), we were treated to a former finalist of the show from. Last night it was Faryl Smith from series 2. The singer, now 13, wowed the judges last year and despite not winning the show she has already had an album out and was nominated for a Classical Brit Award. Singing Amazing Grace again she wowed the judges performing in a very mature and professional manner. But, it was then time to reveal who had made it through to the final and it was delight for Stavros Flatley, conquering the public votes and dancing through to the final. But then the point stood who would go through to the judges choice, and a number of nervous acts stood waiting to hear their fate. Shaheen Jafargholi was the first one through, un-suprisingly really-he was very good, and this was followed by MD Showgroup. By 2 votes to 1, Shaheen clawed into the final, bursting into tears after seeing MD Showgroup leaving the stage saying He had made some great friends, reffereing to the people from MD.
Now, we have 6 out of 10 finalists, Susan Boyle, Diversity, Flawless, Shaun Smith, Stavros Flatley and Shaheen Jafargholi and with some big names yet to perform we are in for two great semi-finals left to come and a superb final come Saturday.
There is no Britains got Talent tonight (Wednesday) due to the Uefa Champions league final hogging the TV schedule on ITV1 but be sure to check TF on Thursday as we will get you up to date with BBC 1s The Apprentice as the final 5 are revealed. And remember, to check back to TF to see the rest of our reviews of this series of Britain’s got Talent.
