Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
We have to say that in the light of day, we have to agree
with Piers Morgan (and we don’t admit that lightly). Ozzie Osbourne may
actually lose that $100 bet he made that Michael Grimm is going to win America’s Got Talent.
Why? One simple, tiny answer—Jackie Evancho. The pint-sized
10-year-old, who sounds like she has a 250 lb. opera singer buried in her lungs,
had the performance of a lifetime (a real grown-up lifetime at that) last
night.
On top of that, our divine Prince Poppycock decided to go
full-blown opera and got thrashed by Piers for not being lighthearted and
entertaining enough. We love PP but we would have much preferred he did the David
Bowie “Nature Boy” number he had said he was considering in our interview with
him last week.
And the Vegas-ready Fighting Gravity frat boys slipped and
exposed the man-behind-the-curtain magic of their act to the audience. Still an
entertaining performance, but the big gaffe added to a string of smaller
mid-act flubs that showed them losing their solid footing for the first time.
“What about Michael Grimm,” you might ask? He was amazing as usual—powerfully crooning “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Plus, reminding everyone how badly sweet Mama Laura needs a house added the appropriate amount of heartstring tugging appeal. So surely he has a chance, right?
All we can say is that as much as we dig Grimm, there are a
lot of really good, 30-something-year-old singer-songwriters out there.
But we’ve never seen any other 10-year-olds with the raw
talent of Jackie Evancho. She’s so good it’s hard to remember how recently she
started singing. Here’s her story in her own words, “I started two years ago
when I just turned eight years old. And we were watching Phantom of the Opera and I thought it was a really, really good
movie. So I started singing the songs around the house and my mom said I was
really good. So she asked me to do a talent competition, she was wondering if I
wanted to. And I said, ‘Of course.’ So, I was first runner up to a 20-year-old
opera singer… With no vocal coach or anything.”
But what could a 10-year-old possibly do with $1 million?
When we asked Jackie about her possible win, in addition to her plans to get a
pony she told us, “It would mean a lot because if I won I’d have a million
dollars to spend on baby seals… They’re cute.”
Not as cute as Jackie… and they certainly don’t sing as
well.
Yes, there are lots of 10 yr-old sopranos out there. Most of them are called CHOIRBOYS. Jackie is one of hundreds, but just happens to be in the spotlight temporarily. BGT had their little 6 year old Connie Talbot come in 2nd to Paul Potts 3 years ago. The adult singer has a healthy career. I don't know what Connie is doing, but she's a cutie. Hardly ready for prime time, just like Jackie. They need time to mature and develop or else they'll end up in the heap of broken dreams. Don't rush her.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably too late to tell her parents that since they've arranged for her to sing (in one of the many auditoriums) at Carnegie Hall. Poor kid... can she handle it in the long run?
BTW, the $1M prize money is in a fund that's paid over 40 years. That's $25K annually. Better than a kick in the teeth, but it doesn't really make someone an instant millionaire.
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