Britain's Got Talent 2009: first semi final: Susan Boyle & Diversity through to final

Tonight's Britain's Got Talent is the first of five semi-finals. Eight acts will compete in each of the five shows. The act with the highest number of public votes goes through to the final. The second and third-placed acts will be competing for the judges' choice. Thus, two acts from each semi-final will go through to the live grand final on Saturday May 30th. Susan Boyle is among the acts who will perform live on tonight's show, along with comedy dance duo Faces Of Disco, Darth Vader/Michael Jackson impersonator Darth Jackson, dance troupe Diversity, violinist Sue Son, belly dancer Julia Naidenko, street performer Nick Hell and 10-year-old singer Natalie Okri. And so, it begins. The first semi-final of the current series is starting now. Diversity are up first. Wow - they are even more impressive tonight than they were in their first audition. The judges are raving about how good they are. Violinist, Sue Son is the next act. And she is just amazing (reminds me of Vanessa-Mae). Darth Jackson is next. I still can't believe he was voted through to the semi-finals. He's dressed up like Darth Vader but doing a Michael Jackson style dance to "Thriller". Simon pressed his buzzer before he even started! The most exciting moment of his act was when Ant & Dec persuaded "Darth Jackson" to take off his mask. The adorable Natalie Okri is on. She's only ten years old - so sweet and confident. I was more impressed with her first performance though. I agree with Simon, when he said that he wouldn't have chosen that song for her. I didn't think the song suited her at all. And the dancing style was much too old for her. Julia Naidenko, the belly dancer is on now. She's very good but I still don't think she deserved to be in the semi-finals. What do you think? Amanda buzzed her tonight and yet she voted yes for her at her first audition. Both Piers and Simon (of course) were all enthusiastic about her. Now Nick Hell is about to perform. I'm dreading it. He's the one who lifts things up with hooks in his ear lobes, etc. I'm afraid I can't look at the TV - I just glanced and he was drilling his nose. Thankfully, he was buzzed off by all three judges before he could finish. So why was he put through to the semi-finals? What a repulsive act. Amanda and Simon both said he isn't family entertainment. I feel sorry for all the decent - and talented! - acts that didn't get through. Faces of Disco are on now. Yes, they are entertaining but I don't think they are particularly talented. They wear various masks of celebrities while they dance. Big deal. Do you think they deserved to be in the semi-finals? And the last act tonight is...Susan Boyle. Clips of all the publicity about her are being played first as Amanda said, "This woman from a little village in Scotland has the whole world talking about her." Susan is singing "Memory" from Cats. Beautiful - although I think she missed a note at the start but then what do I know (I'm not musical at all). Piers made a very nice speech about her providing some hope and inspiration in the world and said, "On behalf of the whole world, thank you Susan". Amanda said she nailed that performance. Simon apologized for the way they pre-judged her the first time. Now the public get to phone in their votes. Which two acts from tonight's show will go through to the final? And the public voted for Susan Boyle to go through. Surprise, surprise. The judges get to choose from the next two most popular acts voted by the public; Diversity and Natalie Okri. Piers chose Diversity. Amanda chose Natalie. Simon chose Diversity. So Diversity go through to the final. I agree with the decision for Diversity to go through but feel sorry for Natalie. She's crying. This kind of talent show is hard on children. So the two acts going through to the final from tonight's semi-final are Diversity and Susan Boyle. Tomorrow night is another semi-final. What did you think of tonight's show. Do you agree with the choices?