The fifth series of Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV between 16 April and 4 June 2011. After initial rounds of auditions, forty semi-finalists were chosen to perform across five live shows, with eight appearing in each of the semi-finals. The act from each show who received the highest number of public votes went through to the final automatically. They were joined by either the second or third placed act, with the four judges declaring who they wanted to go through. In the event of a tie, the second finalist was determined by the public vote.
Each of the acts performed again in the final on 4 June 2011. Jai McDowall won the competition after finishing with the highest number of public votes. Ronan Parke finished in second place, with the difference in the votes being 2.5% between the first and second place contestants. Singing group New Bounce finished in third place, followed by dancer Razy Gogonea and singer/guitarist Michael Collings. Paul Gbegbaje (6th), Les Gibson (9th), Steven Hall (7th), James Hobley (8th), and Jean Martyn (10th) were the other finalists.
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Jai McDowall (born 24th July 1986), aged 24 at the time of the show, was a support worker[1] from Tarbolton in Ayrshire. Scotland[2] He entered the competition as a singer, and although he had been singing for many years he had not received any professional vocal coaching. He was a member of Ayr Amateur Opera Company and Loudoun Music Society.[3] He played roles such as Frank in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof.[4] McDowall auditioned for The X Factor in 2010 and reached bootcamp.[5] He auditioned in Liverpool for the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent, receiving positive comments from the judges. In the semi-finals he sang "Bring Me to Life" and received positive comments from the four judges. He reached the final where he performed "To Where You Are". Despite not being one of the favourites, he was crowned the winner of the competition and won the £100,000 prize and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance.[6][7][8][9]
Ronan Parke (born 8 August 1998[10] [11]), aged 12 at time of the show, is a singer who came second in the series. He lives in the south Norfolk village of Poringland, near Norwich and attends Framingham Earl High School.[12]
There was an allegation that Simon Cowell had been "grooming" Parke for two years before he auditioned on the show, but Cowell and Parke both denied having had any prior contact. Cowell said on the semi-final edition, aired Friday 3 June 2011: "There have been allegations made ... on the internet, that Ronan Parke has a previous recording contract with my record label, that I'd met him before, both of which are complete and utter lies. The first time I met Ronan was when he appeared on the show, he entered it of his own accord. He is 12 years old, this is a deliberate smear campaign and it is my job as somebody who works on this show to make sure whoever this liar is, is exposed, and Ronan is treated the same way as everyone else and it will be the public who decides." Cowell called in the police to assist him in locating the source of the leak, which was claimed to be from within Sony Music UK.[13] Subsequently a 52-year-old blogger who was claimed to have mental health problems received a formal police caution and apologised to all concerned.[14]
Parke wowed the judges and received a standing ovation from them and the audience in his audition, a rendition of "Feeling Good". He was put straight through to the Britain's Got Talent Semi-Final, in which he sang "Make You Feel My Love". He won the Semi-Final, and went on to the final, in which he sang "Because of You". Parke also performed at T4 on the Beach in Weston-Super-Mare on 10 July, singing a cover of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You"
New Bounce (ages 12–16)is a boy band made up of four boys,Mitchell, Kuan, MJ and James who may look like family but are actually really good friends. When they were set off on a bad start when they had to be asked by Amanda Holden to sing a different song no one really thought they were going to get far, especially when David Hasslehoff told them that one of them was flat. They blew the judges away in the semi-final by singing Price Tag and then in the finals sang Ain't No Sunshine. When the judges made their guesses on who they thought was going to win, although Amanda and Michael McIntyre chose Ronan Parke and David picked James Hobley, the final judge (and most famous for doing the show) Simon Cowell picked them over everyone else, but said that if they didn't win it would have definitely be a singing act, which he got right because the final three was New Bounce, singing act Ronan and the Scottish singer Jai McDowall who in the end won. Although they didn't win many have said that they could be the next JLS.
Razy Gogonea (born 3 June 1982)[15] is a breakdancer from Romania. He moved to England to be closer to his girlfriend. After his successful audition gained him three yeses, the judges were unsure if they were going to put him into the semi-finals. The judges re-auditioned him against fellow dancer Michael Moral and Gogonea won the dance-off. He performed again semi-final 5 on 3 June 2011. He was the outright winner of the semi-final, with 36% of the public vote. He then performed again in the final, coming 4th place with 8.4% of the public vote. What he is doing with himself the now is undisclosed.
Michael Collings is a 19 year-old father of one from Plymouth. When he was younger, he sang in mini competitions with his sister, but gave up when he met friends that were into different types of music. When he was 16, Michael heard a song on the radio and said he wanted to sing and player guitar; he bought an old guitar from a friend for £30 and taught himself to play. He auditioned in order to make a better living for him, his Fiancee and their son, Jamie. At his audition, he sang Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" which was well received by the judges, the audience and the press and even caused the song to briefly reenter the UK charts. In the Semi-Final, he sang Paul Weller's "You Do Something to Me" and was again praised by the judges. He was voted into the top 3 and faced the judges choice, during this, Simon Cowell appeared to have extreme difficulty choosing between Michael and singing dog act, Pip and Puppy, commenting that he "genuinely wanted both in the final", eventually however, all four judges voted to send Michael to the final. In the final, Michael sang "Fast Car" again, this time with a backing track as well as his own guitar. He was once again praised by all for judges on his unique husky voice. Michael eventually finished in 5th place.
Paul Gbegbaje is a 19 year-old pianist. He stunned the judges by the fact that he had only been playing the piano for about 5 years. He was chosen by the judges and he went through to the live shows. In semi-final 1, he performed a medley of songs. He was subsequently voted into the top three in his semi-final, where the judges were split between him and trialbiker Joe Oakley. The judges' vote was 2-2, so the earlier public vote was referred to. It was revealed that Gbegbaje had more votes. In the final, he performed his own song which he said "defined him as a person". He finished in sixth place.
Steven Hall is a comedy dancer from Kendal, Cumbria. He auditioned in Manchester. He does mash-ups of songs and dances to them and never fails to make the judges or the audience smile. The reason some think it went so well for him is because he looked so serious in his suit as he is a telecommunications engineer and yet entertained everyone greatly. In semi-final 4, He was chosen by the judges to go through to the final over Edward Reid, a comedy singer, with a 3-1 majority. However, if the public vote was referred to, Reid would have been in the final, as Reid had more votes than Hall. He was compared (especially by Amanda Holden) to similar act from 2009, Stavros Flatley. Amanda said he was just as good as they were and that he was one of her favourites.
James Hobley (born 14 June 1999) is a dancer. He was born in a seaside town of Redcar in Teeside, England, he was one of the twins in the family who was diagnosed with Autism. He studied freestyle disco and ballet and was offered a free scholarship. Hobley started dancing career at 8 years old, and entered many competitions and won many awards and trophies. His success story was filmed as part of a TV documentary on BBC Three, titled Autism, Disco and Me. In December 2009, Hobley auditioned for Sky 1's Got to Dance but his audition was not shown.[16] In 2011, he applied to be on Britain's Got Talent and the producers accepted him through to the main audition stage. His audition was aired on 7 May 2011,[17] and the judges were quoted to have said that he was "inspirational". Ultimately, he was successful in the audition stage and entered the semi-finals, his performance in which was broadcast on 1 June 2011.[18] He was sent through to the final by a 3-1 vote against bell ringers Gay and Alan on the judges choice.[19] He appeared in the final on 4 June 2011[20] and finished in eighth place with 3.5% of the public vote.. James attends Sacred Heart School, Redcar.[19]
Les Gibson, 41, is an impressionist who has been professionally impersonating people for 13 years. He began doing impressions aged 11 and used to work as a carpenter. In his audition, he did a routine from I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, doing impressions of I'm a Celebrity and Britain's Got Talent hosts Ant & Dec, as well as Alan Sugar, Ross Kemp and Coronation Street character Kevin Webster. Gibson won the third semi-final with a routine of The Apprentice, again impersonating Ant & Dec, Alan Sugar, Ross Kemp and Kevin Webster, while also adding in impressions of Gordon Ramsay and Louis Walsh. In the final, Gibson did a routine from Celebrity MasterChef, with impressions of MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, Louis Walsh, Dermot O'Leary and Britain's Got Talent judges Simon Cowell, David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre. He came 9th with 2.8% of the public vote. Recently, a story was put out that Gibson's grandfather was the world-famous performer Leslie Hutchinson, who used to be the highest paid star in the United Kingdom.
Jean Martyn (born 20 June 1951) is an organist who lives in Staffordshire. A graduate of Trinity College London and the Guildhall School of Music, Jean has had a long career as a pianist, theatre organist, Wurlitzer, and church organist. Jean has a vast repertoire, ranging from classical, jazz, and arrangements from musicals. Throughout the competition Jean was known for her £5 charity shop sparkly top and her flying legs as she really got into the songs she was playing. In the finals she even sang along to the song she played. She made an immediate impression with her big grin and her name on her organ.
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