Wow!

As a person who makes a living out of showing off my skills and talents publicly, and who constantly finds ways to out-do my last performance; as a person who wants to be considered an "artist", and who is categorized as "professional performer" in tax forms, survey sheets, etc., it has been extremely difficult for me to watch somebody perform and not see his performance in a more technical perspective. I don't know how it is with other performers, but with me, whenever I watch somebody in performance, I tend to look for technical merits and flaws first before I allow the nuances to affect me emotionally. And it's not always how I want it to be. In fact, that's not how I want it to be.

There are times, though, when somebody takes his breath, then delivers his first line, or dances his first step, or sings his first note, and instantly, I am captivated. That's when I'm sure that by the end of the performance, I will have said "Wow!", because it has commanded my complete attention and it has tamed my restless mind so that I can focus on what the "show" is making me feel. That's when I know the "show" has moved me.

That's how Conny and Paul made me feel, watching them on youtube. Not even live. On youtube! Conny and Paul are two of the thousands of contestants of "Britain's Got Talent", a British reality contest where they pick the person who could put on the table his or her talent that could out-do everybody else's. Conny's 6 years old and Paul is in his late 30's (I think). They're both singers. Right. Nothing new. Like, we all sing, don't we? But they're just brilliant at what they do!



Paul is a mobile phone sales person from South Wales. He has eyes that just couldn't lie about his very very low self-confidence. But he has big dreams and the way he attacked his singing shows that he's passionate about his singing. He's completely not the "superstar" type, physically, but his talent goes beyond superstar-ness. He deserves to be adored. His performance moved me because to me it was a case of triumphing over one's self. He has what other people who made it big don't have: an enormous talent. All he needed was an extra ounce of guts to step forward to say "I will sing opera". When he finally found that, he got nothing but overwhelming praise and thunderous applause. Well, and tears from people whom, like me, he touched in his few bars of Nessun Dorma.



Conny is just cute, when you see her. Six years old, completely innocent, just wanted to sing in front of a huge audience and on national tv. I doubt that she even really wants to compete. That, juxtaposed with her mature-yet-uncorrupted singing voice moved me (again) to tears. Hell, she's so innocent, she didn't even know what Simon Cowell's sly looks meant.

I will agree with Simon when he said that Paul was a breath of fresh air. Conny was too, I think. They both are a breath of fresh air in a world that's polluted with "stars" who are making big bucks but whose talent are mediocre, but are such eye-candies and are in their thrones because of connections who are able to make them big.