Lungs Of Steel: Meet The Newest 'Britain's Got Talent' Sensation
I don't know about you, but I'm already sick of Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent. And I don't even live in Britain! I've just reached my Boyling point with her.
Well, it does seem now that the population of Britain agrees with me, at least, because U.K. viewers' fickle attention has already turned first to younger and cuter 12-year-old Britain's Got Talent hopeful Shaheen Jafargholi (see more on him here), and then, as of last night, to the even younger and cuter 10-year-old singing ballerina, Hollie Steel.
Hollie's performance on Britain's runaway-hit talent show is the latest Interweb sensation after airing on U.K. television yesterday, and along with the obvious ongoing decrease in age and increase in adorableness among BGT contestants, I notice another pattern here.
See, each of the standout contestants on Britain's Got Talent at first fake out the judges--Susan by making them think she's some socially awkward wannabe William Hung with that "never been kissed" comment; Shaheen by initially going with the wrong song before being ordered by Simon Cowell to sing a more suitable Jackson 5 tune instead; Hollie by executing some dubious beginner-ballet-class recital moves.
But then these contestants open their mouths and sing, sing, SING...and the judges put on Emmy-worthy acting performances (or whatever the equivalent of the Emmy is over in the U.K.), bugging their eyes out, dropping their jaws to the floor, and pretending that they had no idea that the Brit before them actually had talent until this very televised moment. Puh-leeze.
Anyway, whether or not this has all been staged, it's a classic reality-TV tactic that worked winningly for Susan and Shaheen, and now those poor contestants have been upstaged by Lancashire tutu-tot Hollie, for whom this fakeout formula has possibly been most successful so far.
"We have seen a lot of children on our show over the past three series and I have never heard any of them sing as well as you do," raved judge Piers Morgan last night. (Sorry, Shaheen!)
But of course, it's only a matter of time before Hollie Steel is upstaged as well. So check out her BGT audition below, prepare for her to reach a positively Octo-Mom-esque level of international media saturation in the next week...and then steel yourself for next week, when someone even cuter and younger than Hollie (a particularly charismatic zygote, maybe?) comes around to "shock" Simon and Piers and steal the Britain's Got Talent spotlight once again.
To the girl: wow.... *applause*