Britain's Got Talent - Live Final 2013

Hoorah! It's the moment we have all been waiting for, it's the final of Britain's Got Talent, 2013! As well as that, we also get to find out who the wildcard act is! Ten acts have made it through to the live final tonight and there's also the wildcard making it eleven. But who will be taking the crown this year? Over the next hour and a half, the acts will be taking to the stage trying to prove why they deserve to win. So without further ado, it's time for the first act!

First act was Pre-Skool, the junior dance group. Once again, I am someone who expects perfect things, but the timings were not all there - which is just me being critical about a bunch of kids having fun. However, going for the 'cute' factor works in favour for these little bambinos as it gets the judges in the mood to not be too critical - as you don't want to upset a load of kids! - and it also gets the crowd going for the better acts! 

Next up was attitude filled Asanda Jezile, who takes her attitude to a new level branding her an irritating kid! If it's one thing I hate about kids, it's when they know they have a talent so feel the need to be cocky and to act like they are the best person in the world when let's be honest, Lady Gaga is the best person in the world. She sang Beyoncé's 'If I Were A Boy' and it wasn't too bad. A few flat notes and dodgy singing made an appearance but despite her not sounding too bad, I don't think she has what it takes to win the final. There are much better acts that deserve a to win the show.

The third act of the night was Gabz Gardiner and I'm starting to think tonight's order is going from the worst act to the best..? Coincidence maybe? Anyway, tonight Gabz is singing a new song, yay! After singing the same song for her audition and semi-final, it's nice to hear something new from her. It wasn't as catchy as her first song, but she mixed that into the end of the song in a possible desperate attempt to gain some votes. She will definitely have a record contract thrown at her so she can release her 'The One' song, so it definitely doesn't matter if she wins the competition or not. The only bad thing is, we will all be singing those words, "Put your lighters in the air, if you've ever felt scared."

The fourth act tonight was the wildcard act, Steve Hewlett! I for one could not be more excited about this!  Steve was one of the three acts that I wanted to get through so I'm glad it was him as I love puppets and ventriloquism! We first were treated to Arthur Larger, but the real fun started when his Simon Cowell puppet came out, but that wasn't it. We were also treated to a puppet version of Sinitta, who was sitting in the audience looking genuinely scared! I really want to see him on The Royal Variety show, but I don't think we will sadly. It's a shame that more than one act can't win the show as this year definitely more than one act deserves to win (Just like back in 2011, when Ronan Parke didn't win!!  Controversial!!).

Next up was Jordan O'Keefe. Tonight, Jordan sang a slow cover of Katy Perry's 'Firework'. It was a very good interpretation of the song and I think his votes will mostly come from the female population as they will find him attractive and he is literally a ready made pop star. Is he strong enough to win the show? Quite possibly not as there is acts tonight that could potentially steal the show. From the show up to now, Steve Hewlett is the current winner but this could all change with remaining six acts left to perform. 

Act six was eleven year old Arixsandra Libantino. To be fair to her, for such a young age, she has a good voice, but I can imagine the competition crushing her self-esteem and her self-belief when she doesn't win. The start of her song was a little tentative, but she definitely blew the crowd away when she got into the song. Can she win the show? I think there could be a possibility, but it depends on how Jack Carroll and Francine Lewis both perform tonight.

The seventh act was impressionist, Francine Lewis, who is another favourite of mine! Her first impression was a slightly dodgy impression of Alan Carr parodying his show Chatty Man. Then we were introduced to Geri Halliwell which was fantastic! A favourite of the audience, Stacey Solomon made a welcome return! Someone from Coronation Street received a good response as well as Deidree Barlow. Another great impression from her was Janet Street-Porter and Katie Price! We were also surprised to see her sing as Katie which was brilliant and much better than Phil W Green who tried a similar gimmick. The best thing about Francine's act is that she doesn't just do good impressions, she actually makes them funny. This could possibly be the winner of the show. If not, we will definitely see her on her own ITV impressions show.

Sandwich making brothers, Richard and Adam, were the eighth act of the night. I shall not be saying too much about this act as I am not a fan of opera, which it seems I have stated near enough every week! However, a weird turn in the act saw some random woman run on and throw eggs at Simon Cowell! Initially, I thought it was a part of the act, but the venom in that woman's eyes showed it wasn't! I have to say, it must have been off putting to them and it wasn't quite so fair that their act was slightly ruined and the focus was taken off of them. There is a strong possibility that these two have won the show tonight and they were the first to get a standing ovation from the judges... or where they just trying to step out of all the egg! Who knows?!

Number nine tonight was Jack Carroll. A public favourite, Jack pokes fun about his own disability, but also liked to throw a few sneaky hits at the judges too! One of the best jokes was him poking fun at rival show The Voice, which was to the delight of Cowell. He even managed to throw in an ad-libbed egg joke to lighten the mood. I have to say, I personally didn't think Jack was quite on top form like he has been in the past stages of the competition, but I would say that's down to nerves. His closing joke had me laughing a lot though! He was the second act of the night to get a full standing ovation and he most probably has the strongest chance of winning this final.

The penultimate act tonight was The Luminites. A somewhat strong act tonight, but I don't think they would be strong enough to win the show personally. They received a good response from the audience and judges but I don't think it was their strongest performance of the competition.

The final act was bookie's favourite, Attraction, who performed two moving pieces in the audition and semi-final. Personally, I didn't think it was quite as good as their other pieces. It was all centres around Britain and they were somewhat trying to make it out as a patriotic and well loved place, when really it's not quite like that. I personally would have preferred to see an emotional performance that leaves people with a lump in their throat or crying, but this performance was not too bad.

And that's it, all of the acts have performed for the night. There was some definite strong performances tonight and it will definitely be hard to even guess who will be in the top three, let alone who wins the competition! I'd like to say we were treated to a performance of Psy and his 'hit' 'Gentlemen' and Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran singing, but it wasn't a treat. It was shit to be quite frank. Why could they have not booked something more interesting? Anyway, the votes have been counted and it's time to find the winner!

Top three:

1st - Attraction - 2013 WINNER 

2nd - Jack Carroll

3rd -  Richard and Adam

So there we have it, another year of auditions have sadly gone past and Attraction were tonight's winners. I'm sure the other acts will go on to have successes but Attraction will be the only act performing on The Royal Variety Performance 2013!

That's all the blogging from me done! I'll probably be back for BGT 2014 knowing me, but I'll try and blog more this year!

Bye for now! 

John x

Britain's Got Talent 2013 - Live Semi-Final 5

It's the last chance for 9 more acts to battle it out for a place in the live final a week today, but who will get through? There are only two spaces left and that means 7 are going home. It's the final live semi-final of Britain's Got Talent 2013! 

First act of the night is dance trio, CEO Dancers, who in their audition shook their bootys into the semi-finals. To be fair to them, it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, they eve managed to get a standing ovation from all four judges. Alesha stated that it was the best opening act of the week and from what else we saw this week, it definitely was the best one of the week! 

Next up was a singer who overcame a huge moment in her life that her left her unable to walk or speak, let alone sing. Aliki Chrysochou received a standing ovation from the whole studio when she auditioned and this evening was no different, she had them all on their feet. I think this could be the beginning of a long career for Aliki and in years to come she will be a big name in the opera world. 

The third act was the irritating all male dance group Glambassadors. One of those groups where I think that if you have seen them live in the flesh, you can understand how annoying and irritating they are. Sadly I am one of those people. All positive comments from the judges and Simon weirdly seemed to enjoy it, I didn't think he would! I can't imagine them getting through to the final and I genuinely hope they don't. I can't be doing with the over the top put on campness and all that shit.

The fourth act of the night was ventriloquist Steve Hewlett and his puppet Arthur Larger. Now I genuinely hope Steve goes through to the final as he is a genuinely funny ventriloquist! Throughout the act he made references to previous things on the show like J-Lo's risqué performance and Gabz's catchy song. He also pulled out a puppet of Simon at the end which had Simon giggling. All the judges seemed to love it and it's rare that we see a ventriloquist get this far, so it's definitely time we see one get to the final.

Next up was Rob's Duelling Pianos, who in his first audition was with his pianist partner Craig and was one of the first ever acts to get buzzes taken back. Simon was the first buzz of the evening and for the act with Alesha buzzing in not long after. To be fair the act seemed like 2011's Jean Martyn who just with more pianos. Personally, I did not enjoy the act as much as the audition and think had he had Craig with him, it might have turned out better and there might have been less wrong notes. 

Another irritating act up next! Maarty Broekman with his silly little guitar keyboard thing. Maarty reminds me of Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer slightly, proclaiming his love for the country. There is not a lot of Britain that we are proud of ourselves. Maarty can't sing or dance and only got through due to his over excited personality and saying how much he loves our country, but apart from that, he has no talent. Simon was the only judge to buzz and said what was on all of our minds, "What the bloody hell was that?!"

Seventh act of the evening was Gospel Singers Incognito. A choir has never won Britain's Got Talent but this could possibly be the first choir to stand a chance of winning if they get through to the final. This is an act I like, because I don't mind gospel choirs. I do not particularly like any other choirs, but you can't beat a gospel one! It was like Sister Act but without all the under privileged kids. In their first audition they fooled the judges by jumping up from different parts of the theatre, but this time they were all on stage together and it still worked! Could they make it through? Quite possibly!

The penultimate act of the night was singer from Ireland, Jordan O'Keefe. Tonight, Jordan was singing a cover of Dolly Parton's (or Whtiney Houston who most of us recognise it from), I Will Always Love You, which was a big risk but it definitely paid off. I think that he will definitely go far, even if he doesn't win the competition as he has the looks, he has the voice and he can play the guitar. This could have got him into the final.

The final act, of the final semi-final, who was competing to get into the final, was Attraction, who tell real stories through shadow dance. It was actually quite an emotional performance that left Amanda and Alesha in tears. It told the story of one of the members lives and the death of his Mother. It's amazing to see how people can make these shapes like Elephants, buildings and a hospital bed all with their bodies. Receiving a standing ovation from the whole room, they will definitely be in the final. If they do not get to the final, then I have lost all faith in humanity as we may have just seen the winning act of Britain's Got Talent 2013.

And that is near enough it for the semi-finals! It's been a interesting week with many highs, many lows and simply barmy stuff. Tonight has definitely been my favourite night so far and it'll be hard to guess who will make it through to the final, but very easy to tell which acts definitely won't be considered for it. 

UPDATE: Tonight's guest act was not a singer, but last year's winners Ashleigh and Pudsey! Weirdly it looked as though Pudsey didn't want to do all the moves he was expected to do (I could ve wrong) but it was nice to see them performing again. The judges and public have hard choice tonight picking who goes through. I think it could go completely to the phone vote depending on who it is that gets to the final three. Listed below are the final two acts to get a place in the final.

1. Attraction (Phone Vote)

2. Jordan O'Keefe (Saved by Alesha and Simon - a tie meant he was chosen thanks to the phone results.)

(David and Amanda used their votes for Steve Hewlett. Simon voted for Jordan so it went to the phone vote results)

That is it for this year's semi-finals and I will be back next week for the LIVE FINAL! Plus don't forget, next weekend the wildcard act will be revealed and competing with the other 10 finalists!