Pop Buzz UK

Britain’s Got Talent started very ropily last year, but was saved when Paul Potts came on stage and blew everyone away. This mild mannered mobile phone salesman got over his crippling lack of confidence to win the final by singing opera like an Italian tenor.

Since then Potts has gone on to have a best selling album and is playing venues around the world. But that was last year, and we need another winner of his calibre. Unfortunately, based on the first episode which has just aired on ITV, that ultra talented individual is going to take a bit of searching.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some good performers on show tonight. The dog was talented, the Christina Aguilera-alikes were nice in their own right, the electric string quartet called Scala were brilliant, and beautiful too. And last but not least there was the Pie Jesu singing 13 year old bully victim.

They were all very good, and the latter even made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle in the same way that Potts managed 12 months ago. However, his voice will break, and then he’ll just become another average singer who Simon Cowell will abuse till kingdom come.

The rest of the acts we saw all ranged from the averagely dull to the weird and obtuse, and none of them were good enough to play a local club let alone be on national television, or God forbid, play in front of the royal family.

Of course, this was only the first episode of the series, and there could be better to come, but the signs aren’t that good.

The other thing that is bothering me about the show right now is the focus on the singers. Anyone with a more niche act is immediately classed as a freak, or not worth bothering with. I know that’s a natural reaction, and I’ve done it myself in the paragraph two above this, but singers can’t be the only thing worth watching, surely?!?

The show is still a good way to waste an hour, with Ant and Dec doing their usual best to fill in the gaps between acts, and the judges all fulfilling their allotted roles as expected. If anything, Cowell has become more intolerant, and less forgiving than usual. Maybe someone accused him of being gay or something?

I’ll carry on watching, and hope beyond hope that the final is stuffed with talent, but I bet a singer wins it in the end. If they don’t, Ill eat my hat.