Britain’s Got Talent has reached the semi-finals stage, with the acts who made it past Simon Cowell and co in the auditions performing live for the public.
Across this week, several acts will take to the stage each night and fans of the ITV entertainment show will vote for their favourites. Each night the act with the most votes will sail straight through to the final, taking them one step closer to the £250,000 jackpot and the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance. The remaining two then face a nail-biting wait while Cowell and fellow judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli decide which one should go on to the last stage.
This year’s series has been an entertaining one, with the Golden Buzzer rules seemingly thrown out of the window. Each panelist (and hosts Ant and Dec) are supposed to each have one Golden Buzzer to automatically send an act through to the semis – but they got trigger happy this year, bashing the button a whopping nine times.
So how will they all fare in the semis? We have a look at the acts who have made the 2024 Britain’s Got Talent finals.
Innocent Masuku
Opera singer Masuku, who is from South Africa, has dazzled the judges and viewers with his incredible voice. Masuku, a former studio member of the Cape Town opera, blew everyone away with his rendition of Caruso at the audition stage, and Holden even said he was the best opera singer in the programme’s history.
The singer, who got married this year, told the panel that he’d suffered some knockbacks and that he’d been told he wouldn’t make it in opera. But they disagreed, and although he didn’t manage to secure a Golden Buzzer he is being seen as a frontrunner in the competition.
He was the first act to get into the final, winning the first semi-final after the public vote. Appearing on This Morning on Tuesday, he said it felt “overwhelming and unbelievable”. He said: “It was absolutely mindblowing when I heard that I was the one chosen, like, ‘Wow me?'”
The singer, 33, and his new wife have yet to take their honeymoon, and he joked that the BGT money prize would help. “If we win this money, might as well!” he laughed.
Ssaulabi Performance Troupe
Taekwondo group Ssaulabi travelled all the way from South Korea to perform on Britain’s Got Talent. Their stunts wowed the crowd when they first auditioned, with the judges and audience rising to their feet after watching them flip through the air smashing planks of wood with their bare hands and feet.
Hosts Ant and Dec used their Golden Buzzer, with Dec laughing: “I’ve never felt so alive!” After their semi-final performance Ant joked that he was as proud as he was when he welcomed his baby boy Wilder earlier this month.
The troupe – who range in age from 19 to 23 – made it through to the final after finding themselves in the top three with Innocent Masuku and dog act The Trickstars.
Masuku went through as he had the highest number of viewer votes, and the judges unanimously picked the martial arts group to progress in the competition.