George Sampson - The gentle rain that falls from heaven

I don't know which surprised me more: that the final of Britain's Got Talent (ITV, last night) had only one duff act or that the public vote chose the same three top acts as myself and had them in the same order.

For the past few days I'd had a gut feeling that George Sampson would win.
I'd seen the number of viewings of his videos on YouTube soar into the millions. And when the competition is so close, the likeability factor can be decisive. Also, the public may have felt it was time that someone other than a singer won one of these shows.
Then there was the 'backstory'. A young boy busking on the streets of Manchester because his single mother couldn't afford the £15 an hour for dance lessons, then getting kicked out of last year's show and coming back with a steely determination to win.

And without detracting in any way from his extraordinary talent, one has to acknowledge the importance of the gallons of warm, stage rain that the boys up in the flies poured down on George's head.
It's reassuring that, in an age of blue screens and CGI, we could still be blown away by the spectacle of someone dancing in a shower of water.
(I should explain for anyone who didn't see it that this was a funked-up remix of Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain).

Can you imagine the Health and Safety audits that are going on in theatres all over Britain as the finalists prepare for their nationwide tour? Pouring gallons of water on to a stage covered with electrical equipment is a risky business. And when last night George did his final performance, there was a tense moment when it looked as though it might not rain and that the stage crew had forgotten to re-fill the tank. As someone said afterwards, you can never trust the English weather.

I think George will be stuck with this routine for years to come, just as Tony Bennett could never perform without leaving his heart in San Francisco. But nobody will tire of seeing something so inspiring and joyful, just as nobody will ever forget the extraordinary impact of that first performance in the semi-final.
And it probably will have boosted the career of Mint Royale (also from Manchester) who did the remix of Singing in the Rain.

I wonder how many people are going to download it and give it a go in their shower at home?
I'm very tempted myself.
So if I don't blog for a while, it will be because the back-flip went wrong and I've broken my fucking arm.


Link to George's semi-final performance on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GX3u48bX7o