Britain’s got Talent: The Final
By Ross Levy at 1:57 pm on May 31st, 2009. Printer friendly version.
Dance troupe act Diversity have became the third ever winners of ITVs Britain’s got Talent in a final which was supposedly watched by a humongous 19 million at a peak…
For the past seven weeks it was all eyes on Susan Boyle, the 48 year old singer from West Lothian, who since her first audition has captured the whole worlds hearts. In the end, in the final 3, it was between her, Diversity and saxophonist Julian Smith. Before any of that though, there were 10 performances, jam packed with talent in it to look at before the public voted for their winner.
To start off the night were, before the results were revealed, Diversity’s main competition, fellow dance act Flawless. On the second semi-final they needed no judges choice to make their way to the final and it seemed like they were the most popular out of the two dance acts. Dancing again, they got the first standing ovation of the night from both the audience and the three BGT judges, Simon Cowell, 49, Amanda Holden, 38 and Piers Morgan, 44. It didn’t just end witha standing ovation though, with comments such as “Utter perfection,” it seemed like the night had got off to a very, very high standard.
Next up was young singer Shaheen Jafargholi. Impressing everybody with his incredible vocals in his audition he unsurprisingly got through to the semi-final. However, it needed a judges’ choice to send him to the final, beating MD Showgroup on semi-final 3. As you will know by now, Shaheenhad to start again in his audition with Simon saying he had made a bad song choice. He then got the chance to sing again and managed to pull off a more than impressive performance of Michael Jackson’s ‘Who’s lovin’ you’. Since this had got such acclaim from the judges and from the audience he sung that again receiving another grand applause and reception plus support from the judges saying he was incredibly talented.
It was then over to young dancer Aidan Davis. On Friday nights semi-final he danced his way into the final in a dramatic evening of talent. With judge Simon Cowell claiming he had got “it” the competition seemed to have another contender. After another performance using some very clever staging and a conveyerbelt the audience sprung into huge applause. Despite this Simon brought his party down claiming it wasn’t as good as other peformances. This rocking Aidan the fellow judges supported him a little more saying that he still had a good chance of winning the competition. With a huge support from the crowd, it still seemed Aidan could be a good contender to win the £100,000 and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance.
On Thursday nights show, 2 Grand were the judges’ choice winners and, its fair to say quite surprisingly, got through to the final, beating musical singer, Callum Francis, 2-1. They went back to the basic for the final, singing their audition piece ‘A whole new world’ from Aladin. It didn’t get off to the best start though, the grandpa of the grandpa and granddaughter act missing his first line leaving him in an awkward position. Thankfully though, the act recovered nicely ending on a very good note. The judges comments were then to follow, Simon Cowellwas first to speak saying they had “gone as far you’re going to go” plus “I don’t think you’re going to win.” This was preceded with Simon saying he was delighted they were there though as that sort of act makes the show. Following that was fellow judges Piers and Amanda stating how pleased they were in the final and how it is the only place they should be.
After 2 Grand it was time for Hollie Steel to take to the stage. She got through by the judges choice on Friday nights semi despite the fact she, on her first attempt, burst into tears live on stage. She got her second chance though and performed a “courageous” performance that took over the judges hearts. It was not much of a surprise then, when it came to the judges decision on Friday, that she got all 3 votes and beat high-pitched singer Greg Pritchardto be in the final. It was then a thought on whether or not she would be able to cope with an even more amount of pressure on her for her final performance singing ‘Wishing you were here somehow here again’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera, a very challenging song to sing-espeically for a girl of her age. Receiving a standing ovation from all 3 judges the performance was dubbed “fantastic” settling Hollie who probably was incredibly nervous beforehand.
6th on was comedy dance act, Stavros Flatley. Incredibly popular withmany, including celebrities of all kinds, the act had an even bigger follower, judge Amanda Holden. She announced “You’re my favourite act,” after they performed another hilarious piece including dancers joining them at the end. With their usual comedy wigs they, as per usual, showed off to the crowd their stomachs before doing their trademark moves. This week the act revealed in a newspaper that they themselves believed they were not the most talented act in the competition although at the end of their performance they receiveda standing ovation from all 3 judges and some great comments along with the one from Amanda as mentioned. Even the hard to please judge Piers Morgan, who is off to the states soon to do America’s got talent, said that it was “hilarious.”
To follow that act was Shaun Smith, 17 year old student from Litchfield. In his semi-final it took a judges’ choice to send him through, beating GarethOliver the comedian in semi-final 2. After his performance of U2s ‘With or without you’ in his semi Shaun opted to revert back to his audition piece for the final, ‘Aintno sunshine’ by Bill Withers. This was greeted by the judges with respect, saying that it was a better song for his voice than the song he had sung in the semis. In his pre-performanceVT Shaun said he wanted to give the best performance of his life and much to his delight Simon, after his piece, said that he did whilst he also said that “You sung the song brilliantly.” This then left us with the question, could Shaun, a relatively dark horse in the competition steal the show possibly?
As the performances started to draw to a close there were only three more acts to see. It was now the turn of one of the most talked about ladies in the world at the moment-Susan Boyle. Susan, from Blackburn-West Lothian, was the first act to get through to the final after mesmerisingthe audience with her performance of ‘Memory’ from the musical CATS. With all eyes on her to win the competition she sung the song that got her to the semi-finals and the song that got the whole world talking about her ‘I dreamed a dream’ from the musical Les Miserables. After a week in which the tabloid newspapers had been ganging up on her Piers Morgan, an announced fan of Susan, said all she really needed to do was nail the song. After she performed it seemed like she did-a standing ovation from all three judges, a good sign that they were impressed, and a superb reception from the crowd. Even more so Amanda commented saying “She did it,” leaving Susan in a suspected advantage point.
To try and steel her crown though came Diversity, the dance troupe based from around East London. Already in the show Flawless had receivedfantastic comments and a fantastic reception, so the pressure was on them if they wanted to beat their dancing rivals. With a complicated routine, including many tricks and flips, the loudest cheer of the evening went to Diversity. And the comments from the judges were just what they wanted to hear, Amanda saying “You blew Flawless out of the water,” whilst Simon said the performance was “10 out of 10″ and that it was the only performance he would give that to so far in the evening.
To top off the cast list for the evening came saxophonist Julian Smith. The 40 year old from Birmingham won his semi-final automatically on Thursday reducing him to sheer delight and forcing him to tears. Julian first caught the eye of the judges with his performance of ‘Somewhere’ on the soprano saxophone and in his semi it was unsurprising when it was revealed he had got through. Coming back to that performance for the final, he played the West Side Story song once more getting another phonomal reception much to his delight. To top that off the judges, who had already claimed he was a “lethal cocktail”, critically acclaimed his piece dubbing it as “A perfect way to end an incredible night.”
That was that. Every act had performed and now it was over to the general public to vote for their winner of BGT 2009. As the public had an hour to choose, it was said millions of people picked up the phone to vote yet when the show returned for it’s results show, the final 3 were soon about to be revealed. The first act through was Susan Boyle, this result not a shocking one to say the least. She was then followed by Julian Smith, which actually was quite suprising considering that it left one place remaining and several potential winners, and then Diversity-jumping for joy as the final 3 of series 3 went to centre stage.
It was then time to rattle down 3 to 1. Thousands of people auditioned for the show, only 3 now remained. In third place came Julian Smith, the news, despite the fact he didn’t win, making him look very pleased. In all honesty too, he is a very talented man and should be very pleased with his success. But with Julian in third place it left us with Susan Boyle, the favourite to win ever since audition show 1 and Diversity, the conquerors of the dance troupes. “The winner of Britain’s got talent is…Diversity!” Leaping frantically across the stage Susan stood, still incredibly pleased quoting to Ant and Dec “The best act won,” in a very gracious manner. When asked what she would do next she replied she hopes to have an album out soon. Then we were left with our winners of Britain’s Got Talent and as the act performed for one last time in front of a jubilant crowd and judging panel, it seemed like a very good decision had been made by the public-a stunning group of performers are Diversity.
It has been announced there will be a series 4 of the show which we can expect to see around the same time next year!
Do you think Diversity deserved to win? Who do you think gave the best performance? Who did you vote for if anyone? We want to hear YOUR verdict here at TF so please, if you have a view, share it!
No I think that Susan in my opinion should have won she was by far the best act, Diversity were very good but I think there are many of those type of acts around in my opinion. But Susan is the type of act that is quite unusual, she has a good voice and her pathos regarding singing the two songs I dreamed a dream, and Memory grew better and better in my opinion. The third act who was also very good Julian Smith the saxophone player his renderring of (There’s a place for us )from West sid story which I really liked also he is a good musican. Good luck to them all my best wishes to all three acts.