BGT judges Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon on what to expect from series 17
Amanda: ‘I KNOW WHO I WANT TO WIN’
It’s time to dust off your Golden Buzzer –or your big red Xfor those more unfortunate auditionees.
Yes, Britain’s Got Talent is back for its 17th series, and Amanda Holden, who’s been on the judging panel since the show first began, couldn’t be more excited.
“I think we're very lucky,” she says. “It’s fantastic that this show continues to deliver after all these years. There’s an abundance of talent out there and there’s still more of it coming.”
Like Simon Cowell, Amanda began judging BGT in 2007. They’re joined on the panel by Alesha Dixon and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli, a relative newcomer to the show, who joined last year.
So, did the lively Italian choreographer behave himself on his second stint? “He brought the same energ y –but less chaos, because we reiterated the rules to him regularly,” she laughs.
Going into the new series, which saw auditions taking place in Manchester and London, Amanda was looking out for one particular kind of act –a choir. “I would absolutely love acrowd of people to win Britain’s Got Talent, because Iwould like a load of people to be able to split the money and have a life-changing experience together,” she says. “It is brilliant when one person wins it, but wouldn’t it be amazing if the joy could be shared with those people’s families? It trickles down –it’s like adomino run.” There was one choir in Manchester that was “particularly incredible”, Amanda tells us, hinting, “I just feel, if they pick the right song and make the right arrangement, they have areally good chance of winning.”
There have been plenty of incredible solo performers, too. During auditions, Amanda went so far as to declare one opera singer the best she’d ever heard. “His voice was one of the most beautiful, classic and enriching voices we’ve ever heard. Imean, we’ve had Paul Potts, and we’ve had other people come on and sing opera who’ve blown us away, but this guy had it all.
I was like, ‘Wow, there’s another potential winner right there,’” she says.
Amanda adds, “It’s going to be agreat series. Ican’t wait to watch it back on TV with everyone else.”
Alesha: ‘THEY NEED TO MAKE THE PUBLIC FALL IN LOVE’
After being “spoiled” by the sheer amount of talent on display in the 2023 competition, Alesha Dixon had high hopes for this year’s set of auditionees. “I felt there were afew acts that could hav
