Generally now, I wouldn’t call singing original. In fact, increasingly, anyone appears to have a reasonable opportunity whether they’re talented at it, just average or totally crap. For me, you can either sing or you can’t. And increasingly we’re discovering through new media and TV that more and more people actually can. To a point where, is it really all that if they can?
Life is a great gift. Breathing is an amazing thing too when you think about it. Except every living human does it. So to make it have a chance of entertaining it needs to provide a novelty – that only the fewest can manage. Yes, breathing is amazing but we all do it so the ‘amazingness’ is diluted to normal. Or nothing special. Isn’t singing becoming less amazing, to a lesser extent. If, for example, X-Factor wasn’t shown next year, would we actually miss it? I’d miss the first few maybe – the comedy acts. But not the ‘serious’ stuff. Possibly without the ads and commercialism it may be more bearable but still not to a degree that I’d Sky+ it to fast-forward the crap…
Now I’m no dog lover. To me they’re a nuisance to strangers, they lick dirty things then your face and they shit and pee everywhere. OK they’re loyal – and they’re company for many and they bring happiness to people. I get that. But, nevertheless, I don’t like them.
However, a dog doesn’t walk on its back legs and dance. It takes a great bond, talent, patience etc etc for the owner to train it and the dog to actually want to do it. It’s a true novelty and a great double act. OK, it’s been done before – but here it was done better. People like to see it – adults and children alike. Circuses proved the point in years gone by… hugely popular until they fell out of favour because of how their animals were treated – fag burns and the rest of it. But in Pudsey and Ashleigh we saw an act that displayed talent and mutual affection in abundance. It’s good to see people voting for the softer, positive side of human nature rather than choosing to vote for yet another bunch of overpaid, pretentious, up-their-own-arse singers of which there are way too many as it is.
And while I’m at it….
60 million people in the UK and a dog wins it, I hear. Yes, a British-born dog with a British-born trainer – winning £500k that will remain in the UK and I imagine will be spent at somepoint – doing its own small bit for our economy. Then why is no-one as fussed that the rest of Europe can enter the show? Countries that have their own version. Are we truly at the point where we feel it’s right to regard Europeans as British for the sole reason that we’re part of Europe? Have we really become that disconnected from our roots? The foreign acts say it’s because Britain offers a greater chance of them launching a successful career. A statement that somewhat contradicts the ‘Nil points’ that they give us in the Eurovision Song Contest year after year. The simple fact is we’re quite happy to knock a Brit and their dog… but are gutless when it comes to saying how it is when we’re being openly fleeced from all angles by most of Europe. And we all know where that half a million would end up – transferred to Europe like the rest of our money…
