I generally quite dislike “reality” crap like “{America’s, Britain’s, or Canada’s} Got Talent”, because mostly they don’t, and it mostly consists of delusional people making asses of themselves on television while pompous jerks like Simon Cowell mock them and the audience yells incoherently. Not exactly high culture.
But once in a while they figuratively strike gold, and literally hit the “golden buzzer” to indicate a truly exceptional performance. This video is a collection of a few dozen such stellar performances. It’s actually amazing how well amateurs – many of whom haven’t even performed in public at all – can rise to professional levels of excellence. Most of these shows are stupid and irritating but I’m not gonna be a snob – occasionally a performer has real star quality, and this is a collection of some of the best of them.
I tagged this as “music” but it’s not only music. There’s stand-up, and miscellaneous stuff like the absolutely amazing acrobatics act which is the first clip in the video, performed by a troupe of adults and young children doing things that I wouldn’t have thought humans were capable of doing.
The video is quite long but it’s just a string of short performances, and I suggest you watch at least the first two or three to get a feel for how great some of this stuff can be, completely unexpectedly.
Please do yourself a favour and don’t try watching this on your phone. This needs good speakers and at least a laptop in YouTube full screen mode or a large monitor with YouTube in cinema mode.
Lots of acro–gym moves almost like cheerleading. Not really dancing so much
But well rehearsed. I didn’t see but one ugly mistake.
The small girl flyer is very strong in her core. She could be a ballerina. She’ll be sought out by dance companies if she has any classical training. She could definitely get a scholarship with those skills.
They were good.
I do not get the camo dance wear. Almost distracted.
Watch it without sound. It looks different. The music is very enthralling. So you forget to see things.
They were a lot more than good. I’m astonished that the human body can endure such stresses, but I guess you get a little of that in ballet.
The next three clips feature some amazing singing. For another particular highlight, fast-forward to 51:15 and watch an 11-year-old kid go nuts with a rock guitar like a pro.
Strongly suggest that folks click on “Watch on YouTube” instead of that little rectangle in the browser, and set YouTube to full-screen or cinema mode.
I have a friend who unfailingly calls this “Annie choreography,” as in the little girls in the orphanage (where no one cares for you a smidge), some of whom are basically doing jumping jacks depending on the scale and prestige of the stage production.
You do know that virtually all the talent shows shown on TV and streamed later are auto-tuned and/or pitch corrected, right?
While the musicians may be genuinely talented, the “industry standard” is now to process all the musical performances to within an inch of their lives. The result is everyone’s amazingly perfect without all the imperfections the best vocalists of the past had.
Fil from Wings of Pegasus makes analysis videos of genuine and processed live performances.
Here’s a good example from Britain’s Got Talent (he also has videos on The Voice and America’s Got Talent, but this one is actually an analysis of the contestants truly live Instagram and the talent show version because the contestant asked him to after he analyzed and revealed the processing that occurred on the talent show, unbeknownst to the contestant.
Enjoy the performances, but please understand, you’re listening to heavily processed performances, which is unfair to you and unfair to the performers.
It’s an interesting video and I watched the whole thing. I agree that Fil is credible and authoritative, but taking what you imply and some of what Fil said at face value as a universal truth, one would have to conclude that all these “talent shows” are an outright fraud in which the producers arbitrarily make a singer sound great or terrible based on their whims.
I think the truth is much more nuanced for a bunch of reasons, aside from the fact that singing is only part of the kinds of performances that are judged – there’s also standup comedy, instrumentals, magic acts, etc. I think on the negative side of things, producers can and sometimes do intervene to shape narratives and manipulate emotions, and that may include some level of audio enhancement and possibly (I don’t know) more significant alterations like noticeable pitch tuning. But all of this is bog-standard television production (and record studio production, too).
It would not be hard for me to believe that Simon Cowell is a self-serving jerk devoid of ethics, but I think that any implication that the performers in the video that I posted are not genuinely talented is false. There were a few I didn’t particularly like, TBH, but I think most of them were awesome and their talent was authentic.
In short, the Fil video was informative and I thank you for the information, but I think it has to be understood in context and not misunderstood as overstating the case.
Yes they were good. There is a bunch of smoke and mirrors when you get a large group on stage with very rousing music, fancy light show and an audience you can get away with a bunch of boo boos.
They obviously did the hard tricks with the few flyers that were good. Most of the group did a bunch of wiggling around and moving across stage.
It’s a great stage show they put on. Kinda like seeing chorus dancers. One lady don’t kick quite as high, who will notice?(Other than my dance instructor, she saw everything). All those moving legs mesmerize and they do count on that.
I’ve been tuned into America’s Got Talent (AGT) for some years, so I hope you’ll excuse me if I didn’t watch the video. But given that I’ve been a regular viewer, I’ve probably seen what’s in it already. If you’ve never seen AGT, do give the video a watch.
I agree that the show is not to everybody’s taste. Not every act holds my attention, and with some, well, it may be a good time to take out the garbage, go to the bathroom, or head for the kitchen to grab a drink. But some acts are amazing, and those Golden Buzzers are well-deserved.
I don’t watch AGT on Tee-Vee, but I’ll occasionally come across a YouTube video of interest. The attraction of this particular video, and the reason I posted it, is that it’s a compilation of 20 consecutive Golden-Buzzer-worthy awards, and almost all of them are objectively great. Honestly, the songs in clip #2 and #3, Stacey from Yorkshire and Jacob from Newfoundland – just for two examples – could have been hit records.
I found a little time, so I took a look at the video. Well, selections anyway; I don’t much care for dance troupes, and after a few seconds of that children’s drum corps, I jumped ahead.
Yes, fully agree. Jacob especially; he knocked Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses” out of the park. He sang in his car on his way to work, and that reminded me of an old friend of mine actually. He was a trucker and sang in his truck, but he had a helluva voice. Sadly, he was too old for “American Idol,” and AGT/CGT hadn’t come along when he was in his prime. But he was sure qualified, in my opinion.
A couple of others worth noting (start times approximate):
Richard Goodall (1:19:30). A school janitor who seemed almost embarrassed to have made it to this point. He covered “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and while that song is now almost a cliche, he made it his own. I saw Richard on AGT when it was broadcast, and while he didn’t win, he went pretty far, as I recall.
Max Fox (1:49:00). Apparently, he was in the audience, just behind the judges, and asked if he could try out. Well, why not? So after a few minutes getting ready backstage, he came out and absolutely nailed Sinatra’s “My Way.” Simon asked if he was a plant, but he was a legitimate audience member who thought it might be fun to lean forward and ask.
Glad I went back and had a look. Again, that video is worth watching.
Aside from that, here’s a little thing worth watching because I think it’s got to be the sweetest, most charming performance I’ve seen on AGT – shy 12-year-old Darcy Lynn Farmer and her bunny rabbit puppet.
I couldn’t find the AGT compilation where I originally saw it earlier, but Google found me the video below. I think I’ve got it preset to the right start time, and it’s just the first 7 minutes or so that are pertinent. In the process of searching for it, I discovered that Darcy and her rabbit Petunia and other puppets went on to headline the AGT final Las Vegas show and won the $1 million grand prize.
I came across some interesting tidbits of information that may be of interest to those who are skeptical of any big-hearted motivations on the part of the producers of talent shows like “America’s Got Talent” and similar shows of its ilk.
One is that the $1 million grand prize offered to the season winner is a bit of a fiction, as that money is actually disbursed over a period of 40 years, so what the winner is really getting is a fixed annuity of $25,000 a year. To be fair, the winner also has the option of a lump sum payment, but that amount is very much smaller.
Winners who wish to go on to music careers are also required to sign a contract giving the company full control over their career, including bookings and venues and any recording contracts. Inasmuch as the company is now acting as their agent whether they like it or not, they’re required to share a portion of their income with them. It may well be worth it for some artists, but it sounds pretty sneaky and confining to me.
I remember watching the shows she was on. She is absolutely amazing; definitely on par with Terry Fator, who is another ventriloquist that (I believe) was discovered on AGT. I saw his act live, while I was on a vacation to Las Vegas.
Even if you’re only “meh” on ventriloquism, the talent that Darci Lynn displays might change your mind. That’s another video worth watching; thanks for posting it.
As for the terms and conditions, I’m sure that there are any number of releases, contracts, terms, and conditions, that performers (or their parents, in the case of children, like Darci Lynn) must understand and sign prior to appearing. I would hope that performers would be given a reasonable amount of time to seek independent legal advice as to what they are signing. But yes, not understanding what you are signing might lead to unexpected and unpleasant surprises later.
I don’t watch these shows but I’m a sucker for the ‘best of’ vids on Youtube. Here’s a top ten from the French version of The Voice. I may have linked it before…whatever.
It’s not only winners that sign over a lot of control…
This was some years ago, so I don’t remember the exact details, but being involved in the UK circus arts scene there was a warning sent round by the performers union about going on the Britain’s got talent show. Apparently they had recruiters that approached a performing group, shortly after a circus group had won the show, asking them to audition. The recruiters were really enthusiastic, saying they were in with a really good shot, acrobatics groups were doing really well in the show, so they’d been looking for a circus group and it’d be great exposure. They could skip the audition and go straight to the televised round as they were obviously good. The show runners even picked what routine they insisted would go down best, with a slow build up and a dramatic acrobatic finish, suggesting they left the stuff with a fast start for the next round.
The group went on, and… got buzzed off in 20 seconds during the slow build up, before they even hit the acrobatics, told they were a boring poor imitation of the previous winners and that was it. I didn’t watch the show but they claimed the lighting and sound wasn’t as it had been set up in the rehearsals, so everything just felt off and looked flat on camera.
Once they were booted out, they realised that the contract they’d signed didn’t mean they just couldn’t do the same routine as they’d done on the show or advertise themselves as having been on the show as they’d thought, it basically meant they couldn’t perform together as an acrobatic troupe in the UK any more without risking being sued. Again, this wasn’t a group put together to try and get on the show, they were already doing paid performance when actively recruited. In the years afterwards, multiple other people I knew were approached by recruiters in a very similar way.
They’re not looking for the best performers and they’re certainly not trying to help anyone get a career, they’re looking for the best story for the show, even if that means recruiting someone especially to get kicked out in the first round.
Ever wonder why no runners up seem to have a successful career?
Wow, @Filbert that’s quite the story! Those talent shows look so honest and straightforward if one has no idea what goes on behind the scenes! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering the sordid and vicious nature of the entertainment business, with millions of ordinary people seeking fame and fortune and a whole industry set up to exploit them (I don’t just mean the talent shows, but the whole music and movie business).
Even if one doesn’t know about any of this, it’s pretty obvious from the way that the shows are produced that they emphasize drama and emotion to try to stir up maximum viewer engagement and drive up ratings. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but if they screw with the performers to achieve those ends, that’s truly despicable.
It is, and I agree. But it just emphasizes my point above: have a lawyer of your own choosing go over all the documents that you are being asked to sign. I’m not just saying that because IAAL, but because given little time to go over the fine print written in legalese, which most people do not understand, many people sign when they have no idea what they are signing.
I have a couple of examples. Let me think about them a bit, and then I will share.
Slight correction to previous- some runners-up have been signed as artists by the company that runs the show, but if they’re not interested, that’s it. They also have no rights if you switch to a different genre, so you could get rejected for acrobatics and make it in comedy or something.
I guess, especially in a smaller country where it’s possible for almost everyone to make it to auditions, they’re going to run out of interested, talented, interesting applicants if they just go with whoever shows up after a couple of years. Also, who’s going to listen to someone who says they didn’t get through and so they were screwed over? You just weren’t good enough on the day and it’s sour grapes, end of story, right?
Okay, here’s the first. Back in the late 1980s, a friend of my girlfriend tried to get my girlfriend on a game show where two friends take on two others. Well, Friend had qualified, but girlfriend did not, so Friend asked me to audition. I passed, and Friend and I went on the game show. We were supposed to be in the studio between 9 am and 5 pm, as the documents said. And we were. But we were called early in the day, and lost by 10:30 am, and were contractually obligated to hang around the studio as the studio audience until 5 pm.
Well, at least my “lovely parting gift” was a handsome watch, worth about $300. Thankfully, it wasn’t Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat; or a year’s supply of Turtle Wax.
Not terribly serious, and I had booked the day off work anyway, so no big deal. But that’s the kind of obligation one can find themselves in. I had to stay and applaud like crazy for the people who had beaten us at the game.
