Not gonna lie, I was into these talent competitions at the beginning. I watched Popstars and the first Pop Idol (funny how the first ones always stick around). but then I grew out of it all and stopped caring. This year, though, they've made a comeback in my life. My flatmates and I started watching X Factor last semester for the auditions, and then by the time the live shows rolled around we were hooked. We had people over every Saturday night and got pretty into it.
But Britain's Got Talent is in a whole new league. I've never sat down and watched it on television. The first year I heard about it a lot, and last year I was in the US but I watched all of the qualifying (read: good) acts on YouTube. This year I think I'll be watching it on TV.
It's no secret how I feel about Simon Cowell. He's notoriously hated, but I think people are, on the whole, getting over the fact that he's direct and doesn't necessarily see the need for tact. But I think he's amazing. He knows what works, what sells, and he's made this such a huge franchise because he finds talent and can pinpoint exactly what the person is best at. Yeah, he's a moody bastard at times, and he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with, but he's made that for himself. I wish I had that much business sense. The more I watch these shows the more it becomes an exercise in deconstructing the mind of Simon Cowell. It's great.
Anyway, I just finished watching Britain's Got Talent and there was a prime example of this. There was this 12 year-old boy, cute kid, came on and sang Valerie. He could certainly sing, and the audience were getting into it, but Simon held up his hand and called it off. "You've got this all wrong. What else do you sing?" So the kid tells him Who's Loving You by Michael Jackson. And the kid tears it UP. Here's a link to it on ITV.
Anyone else have a secret talent show fetish to confess? ;)
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