OK. So I’ve spent more than a little amount of time watching YouTube — sports highlights, music, history, late night comedy, etc.
I occasionally have seen clips from Britain/America’s Got Talent, which I sort of hate, because parts of it are, well, staged. You see lots of clips with crazy people cheering, accompanied by emotional backgound music. I think the comments from the judges are partially scripted. The show is in the cheers and tears business.
Background: It was probably Susan Boyle, in 2009, who put the show on the map, with this surprising performance that went viral (253M views).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk (6 mins)
So I came across a posting, “3 HUGE GOLDEN BUZZER Auditions On America’s Got Talent 2021 SO FAR”, from June 23. On the show, if you get a unanimous “yes” from the judges, you go on the the next round. They recently added a twist: on the judges’ table is a big, golden buzzer. If one of the judges hits it, golden confetti drop and you automatically advance to the live finals, in Hollywood, in Aug, 2021.
The 3-act clip is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpOw8m4B1qU (25 mins total). I normally don’t send along longish clips. But this is really 3 in one.
So the first of these 3 acts in the video was by tae-kwan-doe experts. I saw that, and decided I would send it on to my nephew (hi Sean!), since he had practiced martial arts when he was once upon a time, a kid. Even if you aren’t into watching people kick boards into splinters, this is “amazing”, as they like to say on the show.
The flying dude just kicked a board into two.
That was just the 3rd best performance in this set.
Next up was Jane M., but she goes by the singing name of Nightbirde (https://www.instagram.com/_nightbirde/). At the time of the filming, the 30 year old explained she has serious cancer, and a 2% chance of surviving. So she wrote and sang a song, “It’s Okay”, to say that life is still good. Cue tears. Just before, Simon Cowell, the host, was to announce his vote, she told him, “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard any more before you decide to be happy.” (@ 13:17). With that to digest, Simon literally gulps [water], and then told her wasn’t going to give her a “yes”. Instead, he hit the golden buzzer — she’s on straight to the finals. She dropped to the floor. Cue more tears. You can also see the same song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZJvBfoHDk0 (30M views — in 1 month, since June 2021)
That’s just the second best.
Cue the Northwell Health Nurse Choir. These are 18 front line nurses from NY. Their song: “Stand By Me” (“We all need some one to lean on”). Given the song, and what they do day to day, perfect. Cue buckets of tears. Background clip starts at 14:25. The song is at 18:48
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Follow-up notes (1)
Nightbirde:
Nightbirde died, February, 2022. RIP.
She has become part of AGT lore. The Mzansi Youth Choir from South Africa flew to LA to perform her song, “it’s OK”. It was fabulous, and earned the only golden buzzer ever awarded by the audience.
(Below written earlier.)
There are conflicting reports that she is getting better, or not. This is the second or 3rd time she’s been diagnosed with cancer, then in remission, then rediagnosed. I dunno. Will want to watch the show in Aug, and send her best thoughts. The “auditions” were published like just this month, but “It’s Okay” has already hit #1 on iTunes.
Nightbirde has an Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/_nightbirde/, a website: https://linktr.ee/Nightbirde, and a blog: https://www.nightbirde.co/blog where she writes a few very moving essays. It turns out she is rather religious. She also has a fund-raising page https://www.gofundme.com/f/one-last-push-to-seejanewin. I sent her a donation.
Fan quote: “I learned more from her in 3 mins than 3 years with a psychiatrist.”
Here are some more interviews she has done since:
CNN (Cuomo) “Cancer-battling singer ‘Nightbirde’ captures hearts on ‘America’s Got Talent” “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-ZplVEPbzs” 6 1 mins/2
“Nightbirde Joins The RIOT” (Radio program) “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euVL9vIzL3o” 15 1/2 mins
“Nightbirde discusses cancer diagnosis and how it informed hit song” “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-zlAxUOY8Q” 5 1/2 mins
“How ‘AGT’s’ Nightbirde Felt By Simon Cowell’s Reaction” “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fIgNvZQeDQ” 9 1/4 mins
……………
I spent much of the rest of the evening, looking at other “golden buzzer” moments. The performances were not always, ahem, extraordinary. I could say that if you had anything to do with cancer, or being bullied, or being a child, it improved your odds of getting a golden buzzer.
AGT 2021 Season Videos on YouTube TV (subscription) “https://tv.youtube.com/browse/UCw7_8-1rf-nIuvmJcr00xgg”
They had one contestant, a 9(?) year old, who had beaten cancer at 5, been bullied because of his missing hair at the time, is black, no musicality in the family, but he plays a mean violin. That’s something like a penta-fecta. Golden buzzer.
It seems that Simon had been bullied when a kid, and he gives out advice to kids — if people bully you, it’s because they are jealous that you can do more than they can, and I’ll give them proof — and the Simon gives them a golden buzzer. Nice move.
There was one 2020 contestant, a 12 year old black girl, Fayth, from Britain. The judge on the left, David, said that during the performance, a phrase came to his head, ”born to be a superstar”. This only happens with very few acts.
I saw a superstar, Tina Turner, perform live in 1988. I’m still exhausted.
Well, Fayth sang “Proud Mary”, Tina Turner style, and at 12 yrs old, she had the entire Palladium on its feet rocking out. The audience chant at the end is “Press That Gold!” This is Fayth’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aii62acsp_E&t=317s (26M views, 7/21) Fayth did not win the finals, but it’s the best pure performance I’ve seen on the series. It’s one thing to get an enthusiastic response from a Got Talent audience. This, however, is called commanding a stage — at 12. Superstar.
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Follow-up notes (2)
So still wandering around YouTube looking at a few more golden buzzers. One stands out …
Cue Darci Lynne. Very shy. Very cute. But she cheated. Her mother gave her an even cuter wabbit to help her with the shyness. Cue Petunia.
Hint: the wabbit is the one on the left. :)
The thing is, Petunia sings — really well. Seems that Darci had learned ventriloquism over 2 years, and she’s damned good at it. So they go on AGT, and Petunia sings “Summertime”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_qLtk0m2c
… and they earn a golden buzzer. Cue tears. In the end, Darci is 2017 champion. But that’s not the end of the story …
Darci goes to the finals of 2019 “Champions” competition, against champions from other years, including the Susan Boyle. Darci brings a different puppet, a mouse. 3rd place. Doesn’t make the cut. She goes home. Sigh. Then they call her, and say she should come back for a “wildcard” slot. Don’t ask me what that is, other than management likes ratings. But this is a real come - back. Darci ups the ante. Not only does Petunia sing, she sings opera. Like, real Italian opera. As in “O Mio Babbino Caro”.
The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYH0ymEZVDE (13M views, 7/21) The song starts at 1:40.
There have been other ventriloquists, even at least one who herself sings opera quality — the same song, “O Mio Babbino Caro”. But it’s only with Darci that the puppet sings. This takes tremendous practice & skill, vocal chords, decent teeth, and no small amount of guts. A twelve-year-old goes for broke on national TV. Hint — the wabbit doesn’t miss a note. Wow.
“ 2017 Semi-Finals Darci Lynne Performance & Interview S12E19” “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beBaxNU5pKU” Edna Doorknocker, in her 80s, is sings a love song to Simon, the ironically titled “You make me feel like a natural woman.” It takes chuztpah to this pull this off. It was hilarious.
Note: I’m a linguist, and I did not understand how one can sing, opera no less, and enunciate words starting with an “p”, “m” or “b”, without bringing your lips together, especially if you have 2 buck teeth. I didn’t get it. Wikipedia has an answer: “One difficulty ventriloquists face is that all the sounds that they make must be made with lips slightly separated. For the labial sounds f, v, b, p, and m, the only choice is to replace them with others. A widely parodied example of this difficulty is the “gottle o’ gear”, from the reputed inability of less skilled practitioners to pronounce “bottle of beer”.[14] If variations of the sounds th, d, t, and n are spoken quickly, it can be difficult for listeners to notice a difference.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventriloquism
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Follow-up notes (3)
June, 2022
“SIMON COWELL INVITES 11 Year Old Singer From the Audience On The America’s Got Talent 2022 Stage” AGT wanted to give the impression that Madison was almost randomly selected from the audience to sing a bit. She was selected & placed there by the producers. Maybe the judges knew what was going on, maybe they did not. She had already co-starred in episode 1 of Netflix’s series “Selena” (https://www.netflix.com/watch/81024412). In any case, she can really belt out a song (Amazing Grace). Golden buzzer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_frfPIgC (11 1/2 Mins)
She has her own website, https://www.madisonbaezmusic.com, where she presents herself as the (national) Anthem Girl. Like I said, she really belt out a song, and has done so at professional sporting events.
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Follow-up notes (4)
I started a new page for the rest of 2022. https://jimsoper.medium.com/cheers-tears-2-synchronized-dance-agt-1965acd90ecf
