My Experience with Britain’s Got Talent.

Hello there! Hope you’re okay and well! I know I’m doing just fine! You may have read my last blog post, where I discussed how much motivation I had in regards to my second year of my degree. Yes, it is extremely tough; 13,500 words is a mission. But, I’m 13,000 words in and I received my joint highest essay mark over the weekend. So, I guess you could say that I’m finally improving and seeing the results that I want to see with my degree. I am actually ‘smashing it’.

Because of my actual productivity this Easter holidays, I can afford to have little rests every now and then. Sometimes I write on this blog, most of the time I watch Netflix, Game of Thrones or trash TV. I know what time of the year we’re on when I look at the TV schedule, and lo and behold Britain’s Got Talent is back. Now, not many people actually know this but I auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent in November 2014 for the 2015 season. I wanted to tell more people at the time but I didn’t for many a reason. Will I be judged? Will I actually get through and actually leave my degree life behind and become the next Katherine Jenkins? Who knows. But what I do know is that I auditioned not to win, but to see the system behind the infamous ITV reality show auditions, and how artificial they are. Needless to say, the auditions were a farce, but I couldn’t quite believe what I saw and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

So, I was a first year uni student and I left campus to catch a super early train to London for the auditions. It was 9am and I’d already made myself up, put a cute dress on, false eyelashes you name it, I wanted to show the ‘judges’ that I was Amanda Holden’s mini me. I use the term ‘judges’ loosely, I actually saw one producer of the show, who was probably the same age as me.

Getting ready to catch the train. Pouting to try and look happy at 9am.

I then got to London, made my way to the audition venue (which I can’t actually remember where it was… I want to say the ExCel centre but I can’t really remember, classic). After this was the longest queue I may have ever seen. Thankfully, I made a wonderful friend called Piers who I still talk to up to this day. We discussed why we were auditioning, what we were doing and settled in for the longest queue of our lives. During this time, it was very interesting to see the plethora of people auditioning. When you see the clips of people on the ‘show’ being creative and cool, they take them from the audition to get as much variety as possible. But, be real to yourself, do you ever see that much variety on the show?

 

There was one woman playing a bizarre instrument to the tunes of Star Wars that screamed YOU WOULD GET 4 BUZZERS IMMEDIATELY but also, you would get through onto the judges auditions because your talent is so bizarre and random that you would be the public jester for everyone to laugh at and mock. There were plenty of them about. As a result, I think that BGT will carry on forever, there’ll always be randomers such as this trying their hardest to convince the nation that their wacky talent is royal-worthy. But, we’ll probably see 5 more dogs, 4 more street dance acts and a contortionist win.

So, after the long queue, I was finally allowed into the ‘holding pen’ also known as the next stage of waiting. However, now I received a Britain’s Got Talent audition number sticker and a comfy chair to do some more waiting around on. I’d checked Facebook by this point about a million times over that the least I thought I should do was practice my song.

Me with my audition number.

Then, I might have realised that I actually wasn’t THAT prepared lol. I had my backing track and everything to go, but I know I’m not Adele or Jessie J. What was I actually doing?

 

Scared for the 90 seconds of fame.

The ‘holding room’, the glittery room you see on TV, yeah this is it.

After a bit more waiting, my number was then called to wait outside one of the little rooms, where FINALLY I would be able to audition. What was so shocking to see was the amount of young children (who couldn’t have been older than 12) going in there with a talent and bawling their eyes out to Mummy and Daddy that they didn’t make it. Everyone was receiving a No, which gave me plenty of hope as I went in. But I did it, I went in, I sang my song, I got no bad comments about me or my song. They loved my outfit, my personality, my style, my song choice, everything (don’t mean to gloat)… but I received a No.

I mean, I wasn’t upset at all, the main premise of the audition wasn’t to get through, it was to see the system. If I’d have got through, I’d have HAD to agree to the clause which basically signs my life away to ITV and makes me another puppet of the Simon Cowell system. But what I was angry about was the amount of time the whole process took. I was at the venue for 7 hours for 90 seconds of my life. Nobody was getting through. By this point, it was around 5/6pm, and there were thousands left to audition. Realistically, I wonder how many of these people got through. Does anyone get through in the evening?

It made me wonder if there’s a certain quota they have to fill, and then once that is filled, sorry no can do. They can’t accept anyone, regardless of their talent being able to win the programme.

I’m dubious of the entire premise of the show. I’m glad I went, don’t get me wrong. It was wonderful to meet new people and throw myself into a situation like that and say that I’ve done it. But, it doesn’t mean that I’ll do it ever again. I’m wary of what it takes to be the winner of Britain’s Got Talent.

Also, how much do we see of the winners? Yes, there have been success stories; Diversity, Paul Potts, Ashleigh and Pudsey. But where are the hundreds of acts that have gone through? If it’s for the 10 minutes of fame, a selfie with Simon Cowell and a favourite from your hero on Twitter, then they’ve all succeeded. However, does Britain have enough talent from TV shows such as this for the world over?

Who knows.

I hope you found this enjoyable, I feel like such a scandalous blogger right now discussing a side of Britain’s Got Talent that isn’t evident at all from the glitzy cameras and the prime-time viewing which it still rightfully deserves. Next time you watch it, keep this in mind. There’s a reason each act is on there, good or bad, and it normally revolves around the ££££.

Plus, with articles such as this, can we really believe what we see on the show anymore: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/03/simon-cowell-britains-got-talent-dog-double-controversy-a-cock-up

Here is the song I sang. Hit that high note though. Smashed it (like my essays at the moment, I’ll stick to them).

Enjoy,

Sophie x