Britain’s Got Talent is done for the year! After 7 audition episodes, 5 semi-final shows (all in the past week), and today’s finale, the winner has been revealed.
Tokio Myers, a 32 year old pianist who integrates new music with classical music and who previously supported Amy Winehouse and Kanye West, won series 11 of BGT with 24% of the vote. His prize is 250,000 pounds and a spot at the Royal Variety performance. Issy Simpson, an 8 year old magician, came in second place. And in third place was Daliso Chaponda, a Malawian comedian who got judge Amanda Holden’s golden buzzer.
Other notable acts this season included The Pensionalities (two endearing sinatra-style singers in their 80s), Sarah Ikumu (an amazing singer who was Simon Cowell’s golden buzzer and the eventual wildcard for the final) and the Missing People Choir (the most inventive way to promote a cause I have ever seen in my life).
Below, I am embedding a few of my favorite moments from this series.
Here’s Tokio Myers’s winning moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W0K-UjI-GQ
This is Tokio Myers’s last performance before he won. I’m not a huge fan of this type of music, but he is clearly talented.
This is Issy Simpson’s final magic trick, which was also by far her most polished performance. For her age, she’s truly incredible. I’m still happy she didn’t win, because I like people to be able to have relatively normal childhoods.
Daliso Chaponda’s semi final routine was his funniest in my opinion, and the British people agreed, as he won the most votes after this performance.
The Pensionalities are not the greatest singers but they seem like truly wonderful people, so good for them.
Sarah Ikumu got Simon’s golden buzzer for this performance, which was notable not just because it was awesome, but because they didn’t cut the song down at all. This might be the longest performance of a song in talent show history. Hopefully this can start a trend…
The Missing People Choir might not be the greatest choir I’ve ever seen. Not even close. But the idea is so good that it deserved to make the final.
