BGT and Diversity...

Another show of diversity on Britain's Got Talent... which one judge describe as "bloody brilliant!"... *I didn't say that... it was the judge :P*

Diversity In Talents...?

There's a number of things that I do enjoy when I'm here in the UK. One of it is this TV Talent Show called "Britain's Got Talent". People from all walks of life get to perform virtually ANY type of performance in front of 3 judges (one of it is Simon Cowell) and the prize is 100,000 pounds and the chance to perform in front of a royalty and The Royal Variety Performance held yearly.

It started last year, and the winner was... Paul Potts. His was an amazing story. Just a plain mobile phone seller. Low on confidence, low on money, juz simply eking out a living on a day to day basis. His decision to audition for the talent show was based on a flip of a coin. He was a bag of nerves during the audition and Simon Cowell was just waiting to press the buzzer to eliminate him out... until this guy started singing... and every mouth gape open wide as he hit every note of Puccini's Nessun Dorma... and in the he went all the way to the finals. Right now he has an album under Simon Cowell's company and it's called "One Chance".

Beside Paul Potts it also discovered a talented 6 year old Connie Talbot who sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and made quite a number in the audience cried...

I really like the concept behind it, everybody from all walks of life, short, fat, rich, poor, young old have a chance to perform and show what talent they have, without any prejudice. Although there are also a number of equally horrendous and awful, vulgar performance...

Anyway yesterday was a superb performance by a lady by the name of Madonna... Madonna Ducia... a Filipino... she left her kids in Philippines... came over to the UK... to work as a club singer... so that she can send some money back... and what a performance it was... she sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love you" and moved the audience to tears. Besides a good performance, what caught my attention was a celebration of diversity... they applauded and supported her, eventhough it was clear that she wasn't a Brit... anyway more of the story here...

What else to be said... music crosses all boundaries...

Cheers...

England smells like a farm...

Walked out from the hotel it thought I smelled something funny... so just quipped to my colleague the sea smelly today... haha... I thought it was pretty normal as there's a number of farmland around our hotel... anyway little did I know... the smell was actually cow manure from Europe! :P... from BBC:

"A foul smell detected in parts of England and Wales is being blamed on easterly winds bringing farming or industrial smells across the Channel.
Labelled "Euro-whiff" by the Met Office, the source of the smell - alternately described as sulphur and manure - is under investigation.
The Met Office said it had had hundreds of calls from the public looking for information about the odour.
The BBC News website has received over a thousand e-mails about the smell.
Readers have reported a range of sulphur and manure-like smells hanging over large parts of England and Wales. ..."

More of it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7354538.stm

Cheers...

< P A S S I O N >

You've heard them, you've sang their songs... now they're coming to our shores. Yea the Passion Team is coming over to Kuala Lumpur and Chris Tomlin is "tagging" along... :P

Screenshot of website: www.268generation.com/worldtour

Book this date: August 3rd....

If I'm still around in UK on June 5th I would really like to catch the London edition.... Besides Chris TOmlin there's also DAVID CROWDER BAND... and Matt Redman... awesome stuff...

American Idol Shouts... *edited*

I'm not sure how many of you all caught "American Idol: Idol Gives Back". The hotel here doesn't have a channel showing it :(... so was just catching the highlights over the internet... was pretty much surprised that they sang "Shout To The Lord" not once... but twice... with the last one the word "My Jesus" edited to "My Shepherd"... I've linked both here... enjoy

The first one...


The 2nd one...


Pretty good and strong performance on both.... wonder whether it's shown back in Malaysia... let me know guys...

I've pretty much lost track of American Idol, but thanks to You Tube I can catch good performances here and there... and this was quite refreshing... but was just wondering why they had to omit out the "My Jesus" part... not that I'm so taken up by it... just curious... international audience perhaps?...

*addition* Michelle just highlighted to me this cool commentary on the aftermath: http://www.joshharris.com/2008/04/inside_scoop_on_shout_to_the_l.php