"Nottinghamshire's Got Talent 2024"

Mapperley Plains Social Club.

It's been two years since the last Nottinghamshire's Got Talent, but it returned this year with seven finalists all fighting it out for the title of Nottinghamshire's Got Talent Winner 2024.

Hosted by Owen Brindley and Amelia Salmons.

The four judges this time around were Drag royalty Liv Presents, winner of NGT 2022 Georgie Mills, Councillor Kyle Robinson-Payne and Stu Arnold in his guise as Keith Lemon XXL.

The finalists this year were Crystal Dance Academy who opened the show with a brilliant routine to Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca". Just one young man shaking his stuff surrounded by a whole posse of young ladies, seems like he was definitely living the crazy life.

Singer Rosie Green, who travelled all the way down from Scotland to take part in Nottinghamshire's Got Talent.

29-year-old comedian Zachary Brooks was up next. Zach is autistic and has a speech impediment, but that did not stop him from getting up on the Mapperley Plains Social Club stage to entertain us. Zachary has entered several talent competitions and has done very well for himself. A very confident young man who's not afraid to joke about himself and his autism.

Dancer Isabelle Willbye is just 14 years old. I always feel it's really difficult to be a solo dancer in a competition like this, but Isabelle performed a passionate piece of dance as her piece.

The United Voices Choir sang a lovely rendition of Christina Aguilera's song "Beautiful"

Dance seems to be very popular with the 2024 finalists as we also had Mia O' Regan who also performed an emotional dance routine.

Singer Freddie Vokes closed the competition singing Calum Scott's "Dancing On My Own", accompanying himself on the keyboard.

It's probably the first time that I fully agreed with any judging panel in their decisions, but I was really pleased when 3rd place was awarded to Rosie Green, 2nd place was given to Crystal Dance Academy and 1st place was awarded to Freddie Vokes, who also got to repeat his performance and, as part of his prize, gets to perform at Nottinghamshire Pride 2025. All three winners received trophies and medals.

Guest performers on the night were Georgie Mills, who sang "Feeling Good" and Liam Price who treated us to "A Million Dreams", "Proud Mary" and "Never Enough". The last song sent shivers down my spine and came back with tingles. Liam, at only fifteen has a voice that is going to take him places. Liam reached the semi finals in 2019 in the TV talent show, "The Voice Kids" and currently has a new track out called "Where's Your Heart At". Owen signed to "A Million Dreams".

While the acts were on point, the only thing that cast a shadow over the evening, for me personally, was the lighting, or maybe the lack of it. Much of the time the two hosts were either in shadow or were illuminated from the knees down. With such a vibrant dance routing for Crystal Dance Academy, I had expected a vibrant lighting design but again, a lot of the dancers were shrouded and I don't feel that we got the full impact.

I would have liked to have seen the four judges, not just heard them, but again there were no spotlights on them and all four remained in the dark, and we did not get the full and magnificent costume wore by Liv, nor did we get to see Stu's Keith Lemon persona and costume, well not until they went up on the stage and the one spotlight managed to find them.

At the end of the day, we got to see the talent that a group of young people had to show us, each one different, and each act brave enough to put themselves up there to be judged and critiqued. Plus I had the chance to meet some lovely people and finally meet, in person, Liv and Liam.

Nottinghamshire's Got Talent are helping raise funds for Nottingham Playhouse's 2024 flagship community charity "Shine".