Young Breakdancer Wins Talent Show After Change of Heart

Teenage breakdance sensation George Sampson yesterday put his Britain’s Got Talent success down to a last-minute change of heart over his act.

The 14-year-old dancer from Warrington said he originally intended to perform to a Bee Gees classic in Saturday’s final before switching back to a tried and tested routine.

Having changed his mind, George put in a slick performance to Singing in the Rain winning plaudits from the judges and the most phone votes from the watching public.

In so doing he won Pounds 100,000 and the opportunity to appear in front of the Prince of Wales at the Royal Variety Performance.

George wasn’t the only performer winning big on Saturday night. In the final of BBC’s I’d Do Anything, Jodie Prenger triumphed in her bid to become the next “Nancy” in the West End production of Oliver!.

Some 7.3 million tuned in to watch the 28-year-old from Blackpool learn of the win.

But in the ratings battle of talent shows, Britain’s Got Talent ran out the clear winner.

It pulled in an average 13.1 million viewers during the live results programme, representing a 55 per cent share.

A peak of 14.4 million made the show the most watched entertainment show of the year so far. It was, however, just shy of the 14.6 million who switched on the box to watch Manchester United take on Chelsea in the Champions League final.

Despite the eyes of millions being on him, George pulled off a flawless routine in front of the judges.

After the performance, Piers Morgan said: “I love your confidence, George. I love the fact that every time we’ve ever seen you it’s the best performance you’ve ever done.”

It appears that his sentiments were shared by enough of the public for the teenager to come top in the phone vote.

Having been confirmed in the top three, George was finally confirmed as the winner shortly before 10pm.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, an exhausted George said he had been up until 4am celebrating with the other contestants.

He explained how he almost didn’t perform his winning routine: “I wasn’t sure about the choice of song and, about an hour beforehand, we changed it back.

“I didn’t know about switching my act at the last minute but I went to Simon Cowell and he said ‘You should do it because there have been so many requests for Singing in the Rain.’

“He said ‘As long as you top it, you’ll get the greatest comments’.”

(c) 2008 Yorkshire Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.