Does Simon Cowell Favour Singers Like Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent?
Susan Boyle is slowly becoming a global phenomenon as her YouTube video, boasting an impressive 19.2 million views as I write this post, clearly demonstrates. Her unexpected vocal talents have been the subject of national debate, prompting some journalists to evaluate the snide and almost sickening reaction to Susan before she wowed the Britain’s Got Talent judges and audience alike. Susan has now made appearances on prominent American TV shows and is due to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show, if you believe the rumours. Susan clearly has an exceptional gift and her performance is testament to just how much we as human beings appreciate talent. Her success is in no way undeserved, but her instant achievement and catapult to fame hasn’t materialised out of thin air. Simon Cowell will have been busy working in the wings to garner this global exposure but, once again I reiterate, it is wholly deserved. What it has made me think about is that the Britain’s Got Talent judges clearly have a type of act they seem to favour, the musical variety. The true spirit of variety and indeed the royal variety show itself is one of complete diversity. People don’t watch the Royal Variety show to see a singer, then a dancer, then a vocal group, then a dance troupe, they watch it to see the plethora of talent on offer and, in fact, often to see a talent they have never conceived of before.
It seems that the judges’ predicate is to stick with what’s safe and what has a clear route to market. Simon Cowell knows that Susan Boyle will be able to sell records if she emerges victorious from the show. I am reminded of the reports that Simon organised “secret” singing lessons for previous contestant Faryl Smith which could have constituted an unfair advantage. There were no such reports indicating similar training for non-musical contestants. Ant and Dec who host the show have both expressed their desire to see a comedian win the show but admit that with Simon’s unusual sense of humour, such acts are at an immediate disadvantage. Is there money to be made from variety and light entertainment stalwarts such as comedians, magicians, circus performers and specialty acts? In Cowell’s eyes, Perhaps not. Undoubtedly, many of the aforementioned acts that do appear on Britain’s Got Talent are woeful but, here at E3 Artists, we see such a wide variety (no pun intended) of talented acts that fall under these brackets that it surprises me that the finals of the last two series of Britain’s Got Talent have been dominated by singers, dancers and musicians. Of the fifteen acts that made it through to the live finals of the first two series, just three stood out as offering something besides musical or movement related talent. Damon Scott, a ventriloquist, Strike, a martial arts team and E3 favourites, the Barwizards. Ultimately it is up to the British public to keep acts in the show so we can only hope that those E3 Artists clients who have chosen to hire a comedian, magician or speciality act in recent months, pick up the phone and keep these acts represented throughout the competition.
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- Susan Boyle, An Unlikely Singing Sensation (cbsnews.com)
- Never Been Kissed: Britain’s Unlikely Star (abcnews.go.com)
- Schoolgirl Faryl Smith set to outsell U2 with debut album (telegraph.co.uk)
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