Louise Douglas

Last night, I went to the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield to see the Britain’s Got Talent live tour with Vicky. At first I was a bit skeptical about how good it would be because I didn’t remember that many good acts from the show, but it was a really good night! The tickets were bought through a deal on Groupon, so I wasn’t expecting great seats, but although we were on the top deck, we still had a really good view. Only half the arena was being used, so it felt quite close (although my fear of heights made me feel a bit weird when we first sat down)!

There were ten acts in total in the final, so they all performed once, and then some of them came back for a second time, or for a duet. Vicky took her camera with her, so we got a few pictures, but the quality is not that great (she blames the camera but I’m not convinced!)

The funniest act of the night had to be Steven Hall. His dance moves manage to be cringy but also hilarious at the same time. Beyonce, Shakira, Grease – all fantastic. And Vicky’s camera seemed to agree. The best pictures she got were when he was on stage. A very close second was Jean Martin. Her crazy organ playing was just as funny as it was on TV, and when she did the ‘duet’ with Steven Hall, that was awesome!

My least favourite act was Razy Gogonea. He wasn’t bad, but I don’t really like his style of dancing. I could see that he was good, and it did look a lot more impressive live than it did on TV, but I just wasn’t entertained by it – it was all a bit too manic.

We also had Britain’s answer to Justin Bieber (although at least Ronan Parke can actually sing!). For a 12 year old, his voice is really strong, and I loved the songs he sang (especially Feeling Good). The young girls went mental when he came on stage, and he did get more singing time than anyone else (which I don’t think was fair). I did think it was really sweet when Stephen Mulhern got him to sign a poster that a girl had made – although I bet she got mobbed on the way out!

My favourite act of the night was the winner, Jai McDowall. He has a very powerful voice, and he sings the kind of songs that I love – I can see him having a very successful singing career. The genre isn’t really Vicky’s cup of tea, so she didn’t like him as much as she liked Michael Collings. But no matter how much you didn’t like him, you could at least be polite. As he was the winner, they saved him until last, but when he started singing, I couldn’t believe how many people got up and started walking out. I mean, you may not like him, but would it hurt you to stay for ten minutes more? When he first auditioned, he was really nervous, and I still think he has some of that lack of self-confidence. When he was being interviewed by Stephen Mulhern, and when he was talking to the audience, you could hear his voice shaking. That disappeared totally when he started singing though – I loved his version of Bring Me To Life – better than the Evanescence or Katherine Jenkins versions. And his version of Josh Groban’s ‘To Where You Are’, was absolutely fantastic!

All in all, it was a great night – even if we did get absolutely soaked waiting for the tram on the way home (why didn’t we take coats)?

Only one last thing to say, and that is thank you to the polite people of Sheffield. When we were waiting for the tram to take us there, a lady getting off the tram gave me her day ticket, which saved me £4. Then, on the tram on the way back (which was really packed), I was prepared to stand up all the way, but a woman squished up next to her kids so I could sit down – very kind.

Sheffield – You Rock!!