One Horse Race

For many weeks people have been predicting that Susan Boyle is going to win Britain’s Got Talent. She has had millions of people watching her performances on Youtube and has been featured in and discussed by media outlets across the world. Now my question I pose today is: Is it worth taking part in a competition which is seen as a one horse race?

With each semi final with only two going through from eight I think most acts are already thinking before they perform that they will be going out. This year more than ever I think they have put through novelty acts or strange acts just to make interesting TV and create media attention and unlike with previous seasons I think the audience at home has known as well as the acts themselves that they aren’t going to go through which I feel spoils it a little.

The way the semi finals are devised are unfair I think as so far all we have had go through our singing and dance acts when the show is suppose to be about variety. I think they should do a night for dance acts, a night for singers and so on so that in the final you get a good mix of talents. Also there should be less semi-finals as semi-finals in competitions usually means the final four or two matches when it comes to sport not five rounds of eight people.

As previous acts who haven’t won Britain’s Got Talent have proved you don’t have to win the competition to be a success like Faryl Williams and Escala for instance who have both released albums. So just because you know you aren’t going to win doesn’t make it a worthless exercise as with the right help and support you can turn your five minutes of fame in to a career or at the very least use the publicity to help get you gigs and to help promote yourself. I am sure lots of entertainers will be putting “As seen on Britain’s Got Talent” on their tour posters soon.

The thing with one horse races is that the voting public like their vote to make a difference and count so sometimes if a voter thinks that someone is going to win the competition with or without their vote they may vote for another act or some will vote against the favourite just to go against the grain. For an example of favourites not winning just look at last week’s American Idol where clear favourite Adam Lambert was beaten by the underdog Kris Allen.

I think Simon needs to be careful with Britain’s Got Talent as when it started it seemed to be about showcasing variety and a competition where anyone could win but now with every year the show to me just seems more and more like just a launchpad for Simon Cowell to showcase his latest star.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Never Giving Up

After the outcry last year from the UK over the Eurovision song contest the UK came back with a bang going from a year after year of languishing at the bottom to finishing in the top five. After last year there had been cries from the UK people for the UK to withdraw from the competition due to the perceived less than impartial voting going on fearing that the UK would never get a fair chance of winning.

This year however Andrew Lloyd Webber came to the rescue helping the country to find our act and then writing the song for them. Even with all this many in the UK were still skeptical about our chances of success and still were questioning our participation. People had regularly tuned in to Eurovision to watch the UK do terribly and to listen to Terry Wogan’s commentary in the past but this year we had neither.

Looking back at our success you can start wondering if it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who got us there or if the voting has changed and if anybody could have gone up on stage and got the same votes. This we will never know but last Saturday proved a great point. The point being that no matter how aggrieved you feel about injustice in competitions the only way to change or improve the system is to stay involved in the process and not give up. Giving up is never an answer that will change things. I think the outcry from the public did make people take notice of the situation which was great but it was only that it was twinned with our continued participation which is why we got the success we did.

Andrew Lloyd Webber instead of worrying about the voting was proactive and looked at ways he could change things like with our act Jade Ewen touring the voting nations on a PR campaign. When you come up against problems you need to look at all the different ways there are to get around it and not just give up when you encounter it.

As a viewer I thought that this year was not perfect but it was closer to being a song contest that it ha ever been and it was great to see so many young and talented people representing their nations. Who knows what will happen next year? If we will see a return to the voting of the past but this year has given me great heart for the future of Eurovision. People just need to remember that votes doesn’t always equal talent, just because you may not get many votes doesn’t mean that a song or performance isn’t any good and we can’t lose sight of this.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Playing the media

As the years go on it seems more and more like the media are in complete control in peoples success and failure. It seems that regardless of someone’s talent the media can make or break anybody which is a depressing thought. People seem to be more interested in entertaining news and scandal than getting behind someone because of their talent.

This is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination but is depressing nonetheless. With the increased interest we seem to place in the lives of celebrities it is no wonder that there is more scandal as the media won’t stop until they find some or if they can’t they will create some. It’s like I was watching a documentary on Miley Cyrus the other night and the interest in her life at the moment is crazy with the amount of press she has following her around its no wonder the press are going to pick up on anything which isn’t 100% perfect.

The big media story in the UK this week is the break up or Jordan and Peter Andre which shows the other side of media. Since this was announced in the press showings of the pairs reality TV series have risen significantly and I am sure both could sell their side of the story to the press for big money. Now some may claim they are just playing the media to make more money and get attention but only they will ever know.

Because celebrities have got so good at playing the media you may see it as the celebrities are fighting back and trying to beat the media at their own game. The only problem now is that because people are aware of both sides of the coin when a story gets released about a celebrity you don’t know if it is a case of the celebrity playing the media or the media playing the celebrity and on top of this if something in the news about them is actually one hundred percent true because of the games that go on you don’t know whether to believe it or not. So are celebrities really helping themselves or not?

I don’t know what the answer to this is and I don’t think there is an answer as celebrities need the media and media need celebrities but I think this cycle makes it really hard to find any role models any more in the celebrity world as they don’t sell newspapers or get the headlines that scandal does which I think is the biggest shame in all of this.

We here at Talented Young People want to know what you think about media and celebrities. Who do you think is in the wrong? And what do you think could be done to solve the situations highlighted in this weeks blog. To share your thoughts go to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=718

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

You can’t escape your past

As you are all aware I am a big fan of Britain’s Got Talent but the one thing I can’t stand is when I see an act that I love who has a sob story and is portrayed as an amateur to only be exposed in the newspapers a few days for telling lies or misleading the public. Britain’s Got Talent is the only show to have suffered from this as it has happened in shows like X-Factor but at the moment it seems like a weekly occurrence on Britain’s Got Talent.

I understand the producers of the show have to make entertaining TV so the programme is edited together in a way to make us smile, laugh and cry but I don’t think the British public enjoy being mislead. To me I would much prefer the act to be honest and then give a great performance as there is no getting away from talent but doing it this way it tarnishes the performance. Now I can’t say if it is the reduction company or the act themselves are the ones misleading the public but you thought the producers would have learnt by now with all the previous scandals.

So far we have had an aspiring saxophonist who turned out to be an artist who was once signed to a record label and a singer who claimed never to have performed in front of a big crowd who has now turned out to have sung in a London theatre before and we are only three or four episodes in.

If you or I can find this stuff out on the internet and the press can you would think that the producers would research all the acts before they broadcast the show as it is filmed months in advance. It also begs the question on whether acts who have already achieved success should be allowed to audition or not?

With your own personal career development you need to be careful about what stuff gets posted about you on the internet as in the 21st century it is very hard to escape your past and something which you did ten years ago could be used against you today. In today’s world more and more employers are googling applicants names before they interview them. Our image is no longer just about how we carry ourselves in our day to day life, it is now also based on what pages come up when you google your name. Nowadays peoples first contact with you will come through searching your name so make sure you are giving off the right image. With people blogging and commenting on all of lives trivials points and with millions upon millions of photos ending up on Facebook from social events just keep this in your mind as it is very hard to escape your past.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com