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Last night, the performances went from just good enough to get through to too good not to.
It's fascinating how one push in the right direction and the chance of winning R250 000 can elevate someone's performance. All the contestants gave the crowd exactly what they were looking for. I don't know about you, but my heart was torn.
George beat on our heartstrings with a little kwaito riff and his impromptu tribute to Anele. He's so much fun to watch I'd put him on repeat if I had PVR.
Next up, Durban-based hip-hop dancer Darren Rajbal literally stole the show with his amazingly evocative and loaded dance moves. Dancing on his toes?! Magic! More than that, his thank you speech after his performance had me tjanking, trying hard not to miss any of the action through my 'wet eyes'.
The award for the most progress since the semis goes to Louwtjie Rothman. His act encompassed skill, 'dexterity' as Ian put it, and familiar tunes for the crowd to pick up on. He also focused more on entertaining the crowd than staring intently at his guitar, which took him from simply being a virtuoso to an electrifying act. I really hope someone gives this guy a lucky break.
Willem and Loui, Kalon and Cleo were also good, but the three finalists mentioned above provided the most entertainment. As such, I did a double take of WTF when Cleo came in third. It's so obvious that it was just the 'cute kid' vote. Speaking of kids, I wonder if Kalon's supposedly 'provocative' dancing the night before disadvantaged him in the final. I actually preferred his semi-final performance to last night's clearly watered-down Special Star routine.
So then it was George vs Darren. When George started whispering "it's got to be Darren, he deserves it", I was done for. Now I really love you, George! He was right, though.
Darren is SA's most talented performer. He's also incredibly humble, confident and funny. Congrats, dude.
It was a fantastic finale. No voting bungles (that we know of yet), no long, drawn out drama and a genuine all-round appreciation for everyone's ability and balls to get up on stage and do that. Even Randall's Mr Nice Guy attitude wasn't as infuriating as before. He was the only judge prepared to give a name. I always knew Shado was a real fence-sitter. She's still upset that Faith didn't make it through.
The question now is: was the show good enough to warrant a second season? Would you like to see if SA's Got MORE Talent? With a few tweaks, it could work...
