Britain’s Got Talent Tour - Live!

June 12th, 2009

The Britain’s Got Talent Live Tour is coming to a city near you in June.

Following last year’s sell-out UK tour, which played an amazing 23 shows across the country, tickets have just gone on sale for this year’s live shows.

Last year’s live tour saw Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson perform his sensational Singing In The Rain dance routine. He was joined on stage by all the other TV finalists, including dancing sensation Signature, voice of an angel Andrew Johnston, the delightfully cute Cheeky Monkeys and classical music babes Escala.

If you were Stavros Flately fan or maybe Susan Boyle’s beautiful voice gave you the chills,  this is one concert you won’t want to miss. All the finalists will be performing and there might even be a few surprises thrown in for good measure…

Plus our pal Stephen Mulhern will be hosting, so if it takes your fancy you can buy tickets here.

 

Dates

Friday 12th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Birmingham NIA

Saturday 13th June 2009 - 2:30pm & 7:30pm - Sheffield Arena

Sunday 14th June 2009 - 1:30pm & 7:30pm - Manchester MEN Arena

Monday 15th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Glasgow SECC

Tuesday 16th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Edinburgh Playhouse

Wednesday 17th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Newcastle Arena

Thursday 18th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Liverpool Arena

Friday 19th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Cardiff Arena

Saturday 20th June 2009 - 2:30pm & 7:30pm - Nottingham Arena

Sunday 21st June 2009 - 1:30pm & 6:30pm - Wembley Arena

Tuesday 23rd June 2009 - 7:30pm - Aberdeen AECC

Wednesday 24th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Birmingham NIA

Thursday 25th June 2009 - 7:30pm - Coventry Ricoh Arena

Friday 26th June 2009 - 5.30pm & 8.30pm - Bournemouth International Centre

Saturday 27th June 2.30pm and 7.30pm - HMV Hammersmith Apollo

Tuesday 30th June 7.30pm - Dublin O2 Arena

Wednesday 1st July 7.30pm - Belfast Odyssey Arena

Friday 3rd July - Birmingham NIA

Saturday 4th July - 7.30pm - Cardiff Arena

Sunday 5th July - 6.30pm - Bournemouth BIC

Something Like a Phenomenon….

May 28th, 2009

 

Wow…this series of Britain’s Got Talent really has been a phenomenon and we’re loving every second of it!

 

We’re three semi-finals down, and we’re pleased to say that some really good talent has made it through to the final. It’s been incredible, and we just can’t wait for tonight!

 

There are six through already, we have another four to find and we completely agree with the finalists so far - the right people have gone through and the best acts have won a deserved place. One thing that’s been common throughout these semi-finals is that everyone has been feeling the pressure. Every single act has been experiencing just how big this show is, and in particular how big the semi-finals have been. The nerves have gotten to just about everybody, and it shows!

 

No one has put in the perfect performance yet, the sheer scale of it all has been overwhelming. Susan Boyle hit a few dodgy notes when she first came out, but she regained her composure and put in a magnificent performance. Diversity told us that they’d never been as nervous as they were on the night, and Flawless weren’t quite flawless with a minor wobble at the very end of what was a stunning dance routine. Stavros Flatley missed a couple of steps in the middle of their number, and even the amazing Shaheen had a slight note-wobble at the beginning! So everyone is feeling the pressure big time, and can you really blame them? Nerves are to be expected and especially this year the show and the hype around it is bigger than either of us can remember, and that is bound to have an effect.

 

But, we’re so excited for the final because the talent that’s gone through have now experienced a live show and know what they’re in for, and most importantly they’ll want to prove themselves…and that’s going to make for a very, very exciting final.

 

We’re currently deep in rehearsal for tonight’s show, and the funny thing is that the corridor outside our dressing rooms is the place where all the acts and dancers meet to get ready and psyche themselves up just before they head into the studio.

 

They all wait outside our door which is the furthest one down, and I opened the door the other day, and little Lagi from Stavros Flatley fell straight in, dressed in full Cypriot outfit which was a surprise to say the least!  

 

So we get to see quite a bit of involvement backstage and the comings and goings of the acts so it’s a great vantage point before the show.

 

It’s been a relentless week so far - as soon as we’re out of bed we’re in a car straight to the studio where we’ll rehearse all day, do the show, go home, go to bed, get up the next morning, head straight to the studio again…so we had a welcome night off last night to watch the football, and we’re now raring to go for the second half of the week!

 

So, tune in tonight and let us know what you think, and don’t forget to check in tomorrow afternoon for the second part of our chocolate challenge….The Malteser Cup!

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.

The last of the auditions

May 24th, 2009

So that’s it! The auditions are over!

The judges have chose the final 40… it’s time for the LIVE semi-finals!!

Are your favourites there? Have the judges made any mistakes? Let us know whether you think they have made they made the right decisions or not…

But, what a final set of last auditions we had! There were the Barrow Boys, who got two buzzers and then had them both removed, which is the first time that has ever happened! We had Julia Naidenko the belly dancer who had about ten yes’s, and two more from us!

We had ‘Nick Hell’, who was Hell by name and Hell by nature - let’s just say Dec didn’t warm to him , he couldn’t actually watch that one from the side of the stage; made him a bit queasy, but he definitely gave us something very different.

Kieran Gaffney, the 12 year old drummer, (who looked liked like a young Adrian Chiles! Don’t you think!?) was brilliant. He’s only been drumming for one year but he was absolutely amazing. There was Fred Bowers, the 73 year old break-dancer.  When he told us what he did, we didn’t know what he was going to break…his hips or his leg!  He got three yes’s but did have to have a little sit down afterwards to get his breath back! And how could we forget Martin Matcham, the guitarist with a fancy pants light up guitar and the mother in law from Hell who put Simon firmly in his place. All of those guys, among others, made the last audition show the best one yet.

Now though it starts to get serious. We go into the live semi-finals and we couldn’t be more excited. You already know that we love live television, and every night we’re going to get swept up in Britain’s Got Talent fever! The first live semi- final is going to be an absolute corker; here’s the line up

Diversity

Sue Son

Darth Jackson

Natalie Okri

Julia Naidenko

Nick Hell

Faces of Disco

Susan Boyle

Which two will go through? It’s hard to say. We’ll be giving you all the gossip from behind the scenes during this semi-final week so keep checking back for updates.

Also, we hope you all like the chocolate challenges, keep all your challenges coming in and we’ll give them a bash, we had a right laugh doing them and we cannot wait to show you the next one…just wait!

Until then,

Ant and Dec

 

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.

Suits You!

May 16th, 2009

 

So, we’re edging closer to the live semi-finals and STILL the talent keeps coming! This week gave us little Natalie, the little singer who is possibly the cutest kid we’ve had on the show. She gave us both big hugs, sang a fantastic number and managed to charm the socks off the judges - and probably charmed the socks off you all watching at home too! She was really excited to meet us on the day and was so nervous that her little teeth were still chattering after the audition, bless her. Such a big voice for such a little girl, we have to admit that we melted a bit when we met her and really hope she goes through to the semi finals.

Another impressive kid was 11 year-old Aidan Davis, an amazing dancer who’s already being dubbed as the new George Sampson, if not better.  We loved the fact he had his own distinctive look going on with his skinny jeans, flat cap and checkered scarf - he’s a little dude!  A very good mover too and he has the potential to do really well in the competition - could it be two years in a row that a young male dancer wins the series? Who knows…

This week’s granddaughter and granddad singing duo Two Grand came on and sang the Disney song A Whole New World which is the one Peter Andre and Jordan did. We hope that’s where the similarity ends; we don’t want Two Grand splitting up just yet. It was a touching story as granddad revealed that his wife died only a year ago and how he still misses her - it even got Ant welling up from the side of the stage. It was a lovely performance that went down really well with the judges and the audience in the theatre. Well done Two Grand!

But our favourite moment this week had to be the return of our old pal Brenda Isaacs. She auditioned unsuccessfully last year after a mix up with her CD track listing, thanks to her boyfriend Roy. Roy had been dragged along to the audition this year and told us he had nothing to do with the preparations this time round. Because of that the track listing worked perfectly but unfortunately the singing didn’t.  She assured us that she’ll be back again next year though, but she’s going to knock the singing on the head and try pole-dancing instead! I think you’ll agree that’s something for us all to look forward to!

We made it back from Newcastle and the football (hope you liked the vid) and have been fitted for new suits this week, getting our outfits together for the live semi’s. We’ve been trying on new shirts and ties and shoes, we’ve been like a couple of excitable girls, it’s all “Ooh, what are you wearing for show one!?” and “Ooh, how about show two!?” We’ll calm down soon I promise!  

Brace yourselves for next week when the final 40 will be revealed! Can’t wait!

Want more BGT? Catch up with Piers Morgan’s Blog by clicking here.

 

 

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.

Weird Talent

May 5th, 2009

Kay - The human saxophonist

BGT is now essential Saturday night viewing up and down the nation and this week things definitely got a little weirder, to say the least…

Not many people can claim to be able to play their own nose, but 15 year-old Brian who appeared on the show can. Leaving a trail of snot behind him, his talent didn’t quite meet the standard required to go through, and probably grossed out the judges a little too much as well.

Then there was Kay Oresanya, the human saxophone whose act really divided the judges. Piers and Amanda thought he was the best thing since sliced bread however the discerning Mr. Cowell was less enthusiastic about his rendition of The Jackson Five song I’ll Be There, which frankly to us, sounded like a load of odd squealing. Perhaps most surprisingly about the whole surreal performance was Kay’s self-belief; he genuinely thinks he’s got what it takes to perform in front of her Majesty the Queen and we guess only time will tell if he’s right.

Other weirdness from Saturday’s show included Knitter Natter, father and daughter singing/dance duo act Gemma and Michael and probably heaps more we were saved from but the judges -and Ant & Dec - still had to endure!

Then of course there was the remarkably-voiced Jamie Pugh. Could he be the next Susan Boyle or will his nerves get in the way too much? You’ll just have to keep on watching and find out…

To read Ant & Dec’s verdict on this week’s show read their blog now. 

Read Piers Morgan’s BGT blog for his unique take on the show.

Check out the galleries section here.

The Likeability Factor

May 2nd, 2009

So, what would YOU do? You’ve just auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent with your best friend but Simon only likes you. That’s the dilemma that faced Sue Son - whether or not to dump best friend Janine and go it alone. It must’ve been a tough decision but she made it, auditioned again on her own and it paid off - but at what price? We’d never do that would we Ant?…..Ant!?


Jamie Pugh, the warehouse worker and pizza deliveryman from Wales was another act that got everyone talking this week. He performed Bring Him Home from Les Miserables but was so incredibly nervous. He was shaking and sweating with stage fright and we genuinely didn’t know if he was going to manage to sing a note, never mind bring the house down in the way that he did. It was brilliant, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house on the day or amongst you lot watching at home I bet. He was actually the very last person to audition on our last day, which in itself would be nerve wracking, but to overcome his nerves and put in a performance like he did was brilliant. It was a great way to finish the tour.

We had one of the weirdest auditions in BGT history this week in the form of Kay from Glasgow who impersonated a saxophone. Simon compared the sound to a screaming baby and he wasn’t far off. It was like he was playing an invisible saxophone as he still had his hands in the right places - whilst squealing away. He said he was head and shoulders above his contemporaries and we agree. He is undisputedly the best in the world at what he does. That’s admittedly because no-one else in the world does it though! Amazingly, he went through because as is so often the case, Simon hated it so Piers and Amanda decided it would be fun to gang up on him and put Kay through anyway.



There was A LOT of variety this week ranging from Brian who came on and played his nose (there was snot everywhere!) to the three pensioners who made up Knit and Natter, the trio who came onstage and knitted whilst they had, you guessed it - had a natter. It did exactly what it said on the tin and even inspired Ant to try his hand at finger knitting a scarf whilst watching the act. We can assure you all that said scarf is finished and looks as hideous and holy as it did at the show!

Calum Francis went through after his performance from Oliver! not so much for his singing but because the judges decided he had the ‘likeability factor’. This has given us an idea for a new talent show, we’re sure it’d be a ratings winner, ‘The Likeability Factor’, is the show in which we tour the country looking for Britain’s best undiscovered likeable person. The auditions would feature average people be people being really, reeeeaaalllly nice in front of a panel of judges that would include ‘Lovely’ Lorraine Kelly, ‘Pleasant’ Phillip Schofield and ‘Terrible’ Trevor McDonald as TV’s new Mr. Nasty. It’s a hit! We’re still keeping the faith for Newcastle Utd staying in the Premiership and technically; we’re still in it. We’re hopefully going to go to the next game against Middlesbrough to shout the lads on; it’s a local derby too, which will add a bit of spice. It’s a massive game for us and we’re in same position as we were this time last week, so fingers crossed everyone! Catch you soon x

If you want more on BGT check out Piers Morgan’s official blog by clicking here.

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.

BGT- BTS- Part 4

May 1st, 2009

Squeaky Bum Time!

April 25th, 2009

 

Week three and the talent keeps on coming! One of our many favourites was definitely DJ Talent, the rapper who performed that catchy little number, Britain’s Got Talent!

We defy any of you who watched the show to not have the rap stuck in your heads! Remember? “When I say Britain, you say Talent… it’s Britain’s got talent its DJ Talent!” And that’s basically it. Complete with all the bling and gold teeth, in the end he went through simply because the song is so addictive it stuck in the judges’ heads! So, how many of you reading the blog now are singing the Britain’s Got Talent rap? It’s certainly a bit different from Susan Boyle!

While we’re on the subject of Susan, over 100m hits later, she’s still gracing the front page of all the papers - and what about that make-over! She’s had a trim and coloured her hair, had her eyebrows done and looks quite nice, but I have to say we loved her the way she was. Let’s hope it’s not like in the tale of Sampson and Delilah when he cuts off his hair and loses all his strength, hopefully Susan hasn’t been over blow-dried and evaporated her singing voice! Perhaps the mini-makeover is because of her impending dinner date with Piers, but we fear she’ll need a lot more than that to get through a date with him!

It looks like Flawless have competition in the form of dance group Diversity who the judges absolutely loved this week. Anyone who thought we’d found the definitive dance group for this competition is wrong as they are definitely contenders to their crown. Their style is a little different to Flawless’s but no less impressive. They’re creative, they use a few nice gimmicks (like having a very small child climb out of a hold-all!) and there are a few sound effects chucked in too. It’s going to be interesting to see if both of them, or which of them, or if either of them, go through to the live semi finals.

Speaking of the live semi’s, we’ve actually forgotten who’s made it through to the final 40 acts! Having seen so many during the auditions and interviewed just about every one of them it’s all a bit blurry! We did the deliberation days, but it was so long ago that we watch the show now and it’s still really entertaining for us, trying to decide (and remember!) who went through.

Other highlights this week included Hollie, our lovely little ballerina who has the sweetest little voice. There’s Tia-Anna, the drag artist who was allegedly unlike other drag acts because of his voice, which was his secret weapon. If that’s the case then it needs to sharpening ‘cos boy was it blunt! He thought that he’d seen us ‘drag up’ in the past and we have to admit we have, but only for televisual purposes - well, that’s what we’re telling you lot anyway…

Piers was almost directly responsible for the gruesome death of Mike, the former swimming pool manager as he performed a handstand over a knife, something you should definitely NOT try at home! He thankfully pulled it off, despite Piers buzzing at the crucial moment and Amanda freaking out. Knowing Piers, he would have timed that! The best part of that audition for us though is watching Simon almost jump out of his skin when Piers buzzes! It’s priceless! It’s our second favourite ‘Simon Moment’ of the series after his cherubic *SIGH* during Susan Boyle’s audition. He looks like a teenager in love!

Check out this week’s contestants gallery HERE.

The Prince of Darkness was on great form this week and sent us both a text to celebrate how well the show was going. He must have been on a high with the ratings and thought, “I must tell the boys how well they are doing” so when he becomes grumpy old Simon again and we’re forcing someone BACK on stage or just generally larking about, we’ll show him those texts again and remind him how fabulous he thinks we are!

Apart from BGT, there’s loads of great TV at the moment…we’re both loving Marco and Hell’s Kitchen, The Inbetweeners which is very funny, The Apprentice is riveting, we don’t have any favourites yet - it’s more about who we don’t like! James talks a bit too much and Ben seems too full of himself . We were a bit gutted when Paula went though, she was great and had nice, red hair. There’s not enough of that on TV!

We’re still catching up on Heroes and are really into Lost, they are (finally!) starting to answer some questions and tricky plot angles which is exciting. We’re also both trying season one of The Wire. The jury is out thus far but whilst we’re not really feeling it yet we’re going to stick with it; right now it feels like a joke that everyone else gets but we don’t!

We’re also in a bit of training, having had a couple of sporting challenges come our way recently. Our 5-a-side football team has been challenged to an 11-a-side game against the coaches from Brentford FC in a couple of weeks time. Brentford is our closest football league team so we’re going to give them a game. We’ve also been challenged to a round of golf against Piers Morgan and the Exec Producer of BGT, Richard Holloway. There’s money riding on it too as Piers was in the bar one night after the auditions bragging about what a great golfer he was and that he’d wipe the floor with us so and we’re going to try and fit that in the next few weeks. We’d love it if we beat him, LOVE IT!

Tomorrow night is the BAFTA Awards, so keep please everything crossed for us!

Finally, we need your help. We need you all to keep your fingers crossed Monday night, say a little prayer, light a candle, wish upon a star, whatever! It’s Newcastle Vs Portsmouth in the Premier League and we HAVE to win. We have got to win our last 3 home games before the end of the season. Bearing in mind we have only won 4 all year and there are only 3 left it doesn’t bode too well. We’ll be glued to that and we’re keeping the faith, we need everyone to rally behind the team, all the 52,000 who’ll be packed into St. James Park. We need the crowd to be the 13th man, it’s a game of two halves and if we go down we’ll be as sick as a parrot and all the other sporting clichés! Big Alan can do it…we have ultimate faith in him, it’s ‘Squeaky Bum’ time as they call it in footballing circles and we have to show bounce-back-ability! HAWAY THE LADS!!!

If you want more on BGT check out Piers Morgan’s official blog by clicking here.

 

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.

BGT- BTS- Part 3

April 24th, 2009

Use The Force!

April 21st, 2009

Well, Britain’s Got Talent is just getting bigger and bigger…which is great, it really seems to have caught the public’s imagination. On Saturday, just two shows in, it had its second biggest audience in BGT history (over 13 million of you tuned in!) and the whole thing has really taken us by surprise! We knew when we finished the auditions we had a good series but we had no idea people were going to engage with it as much as they have so far.  

Thanks so much for watching. It’s a real feel-good show where everyone can sit down and have a good laugh, a good cry and a good hour’s entertainment. And wasn’t there plenty to laugh and cry about this week!? Darth Jackson was obviously our favourite. What you couldn’t quite see on TV was how much he was sweating! It was literally dripping out of the bottom of his mask! At the end of his act, for some unknown reason, he looked really annoyed with us, like we’d messed the whole thing up for him, which we couldn’t understand because he didn’t ask us to do anything for him! He never asked us to change his music halfway through or stop at a particular moment, so when things didn’t go to plan in his head, he wasn’t too pleased and targeted his displeasure at us. Ant did try and nick his light sabre though so that probably rubbed him up the wrong way! And let me tell you the sight of Darth Vader on stage not very pleased, hands on hips, staring menacingly back at you is a pretty harrowing sight!

Shaheen was a great little singer but it nearly all went terribly wrong. We were hoping and expecting him to be brilliant when he first started  singing Valerie, unfortunately it just didn’t quite work for some reason.  Thankfully Simon stopped him during the song which shows that he occasionally gets it right (ok, ok, he gets it right a lot of the time!) It was completely the wrong song but then what followed was knockout! The majority of the singers prepare a couple of songs in case there are any problems on the day and thank goodness Shaheen did, he was dynamite and has predictably been installed as second favourite to win the show after Susan, but as we keep saying, there are plenty more to come….

This week it’s BOOK BOOK BOOK for us- we’ve received the finished first draft of the manuscript and we’re putting the finishing touches to it and, so we’re turning off phones, computers and locking ourselves away to get it done. It’s weird sitting down and reading through the last 20 years, but we think you’re all going to really enjoy it. We hope you do anyway!! It looks like it’s going be out in September so keep checking back for a release date, we’ll let you know here as soon as it’s confirmed.

We also launched our YouTube channel this week too, please feel free to drop in for a cuppa HERE , we’ve just moved in so you’ll have to excuse the mess, everything’s in boxes, and we cant find the tea bags anywhere so it’ll have to be coffee is that alright!?

Oh, and before we go we’d like to say a big “thank you” to some of the new visitors to the site from around the World who’ve been visiting as well as you guys here in the UK. We’ve been reading your comments so keep leaving them; it’s great to know there are so many of you out there enjoying the show from such far flung corners of the globe!

Don’t forget to check out our behind-the-scenes webisodes!

Enjoy Show 3 on Saturday, catch you later  X

 

 

 

 © 2009 Ant and Dec

The copyright in this blog is owned by Ant and Dec. If you are using a quote for publication purposes, copyright law requires you to acknowledge officialantanddec.com as the original source.