Hi all,
Sorry to keep this subject going, but it has been bugging me.

In the semi when HS loses the words and asks for a second chance, does anyone else think that she gives someone off to the right a knowing look for a microsecond?

Without the benefit of youtube, a lot of these discussions would have to fizzle away to nothing, but now we can analyze and reanalyze to our heart's content.

Sorry if this is being discussed already somewhere else.

Look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijt3VpTzXb0

at 3:06

Or am i just being mean about a small child in distress? that is what is bugging me.

I am veering between thinking it is all a horrible experience for the poor child, and thinking that actually it all looks really really stage managed when you watch it again.

Simon says something (what on earth is it?) then she breaks down. Then her mother appears and why do they actually sit her on the stage?

Is it all the pr machine thinking that Susan had no competition and making up a sympathy vote contestant (whispers: to get more people to phone in?)

Take it or leave it as the source may be flawed - folks claim all sorts around here - BUT someone claiming to be a friend of Hollie's mother posted on Saturday morning and implied that Hollie had given an advance directive that should she corpse/dry/croak/forget her words...she ought to be assured another chance. Funny how life turns out.

/I stress it was one post by one FM who's provinence I can't vouch for. Although they were defending Hollie's mother and they seemed to disappear pretty quickly after realizing that perhaps they had said too much.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure. I seem to remember her saying Simon's name a few times when she was crying, I got the impression his glare unsettled her.

I must say though - if it was all acting, she deserved to go through for her acting ability alone (I don't think her voice merited the final though)!

Nothing would surprise me. I did notice that when Ant told Hollie that the producers had said no she couldn't perform again she started crying again. Yet as soon as Simon said we will find the time, she stopped the noise making immediately and the camera zoomed in for a close up, showing a perfectly made up face and no tear stains whatsoever.

Its a shame if it was a set up but Cowell only has himself to blame for all these conspiracy stories. We ahve been hoodwinked many times in the past.

I must admit, I said the same thing to my friend the other day. Not about the look, but the fact that the crying noise was really odd and then she carried on singing and then again did the strange crying noise. If that was Greg Pritchard would he have been given another chance to perform if he had 'forgotton' his words?

TBH although Hollie is quite used to appearing on stage singing and dancing in front of live audiences, I honestly don't think her 'meltdown' was staged. If it had happened to someone else, then maybe, but I don't think even the heartless producers of bgt would take the risk on a 10 yr old being able to carry it off.

She simply forgot the words of the song and is not old enough or experienced enough to deal with it, and cried. It happens with performing children (and adults too for that matter).

Yes, but it is possible over-analyse. If you look at it in enough detail you can deduce whatever you want.

I'd be inclined to think it had been staged if she suddenly stopped and the tears came out of nowhere, but you could hear her voice getting more and more shakey until she stopped. As someone else pointed out, if that was staged, she'd make an incredibly good actress.

Unless- they took the chance that she might break down if they gave her a song she wasn't familiar with? Her eyes definitely looked glazed with tears when she was standing next to Dec though, so people saying that there wasn't tears in her eyes is complete rubbish. They might not have fell down her cheeks, but they were in her eyes though.

My first instinct was that she putting it on, I actually thought it was part of the song/routine until she stopped completely.

She was whining and crying but there were no tears (only tear she shed was right at the very end of the 2nd performance) I thought that was a bit strange for someone so vocally upset.

But then I am a cynical, heartless bastard.

Apparently just about everyone in the semis were given routines & songs to perform that they were not familiar with, not just Hollie.

Even in the final - Aiden didn't want to do that routine; he apparently wanted to do the one he did for the audition but was told he couldn't repeat his audition (strange how certain singers could, though isn't it?)

Flawless had a lot of moves for their final routine removed and were told they couldn't do them... no wonder they looked a bit sour when they weren't even in the top 3.

May have been others, I only know about those 2.

At the end of the day, it's just a tv entertainment show which is run on the cheap by having performers they don't have to pay.

I felt sorry for her on the first bit of breakdown/crying, but not at the part when she howled even louder afterwards, it wasn't nice to watch
I doubt the breakdown was stagemanaged, she was just very frightened.

I noticed

I think some of you have over-analyzed the situation so much, you're starting to see things that aren't even there, or making perfectly innocent gestures out to be some sort of conspiracy. It’s getting a bit silly.

He said "She's forgetting the words"

I am reminded of this story about former child star Shirley Temple:

Whilst I do think that she basically had a foot-stomping tantrum during the semi-final, and that she shouldn't have been rewarded for that, I don't think that it was something scripted by the producers, or that there was some kind of 'knowing look' from her.

It would seem that this show is totally unfair then for some, IF true. I was a bit surprised by the fact that Susan and Shaun were allowed to perform their audition songs at the final.

Poor Hollie probably didnt know where to look, she was obviously in a distressed state.

She was looking at her mother who was sitting on the stage in front of her and slightly to Hollie's left.

I didn't like her, and don't think she should have got her second attempt, but this is clutching at straws....

Agreed, ive just watched it back and she was obviously frightened and the look at her mother was completely natural.

i'm no fan of the kid but when she was singing the camera cut to simon who was turning to talk to amanda and then panned back to hollie - i think it was that that distracted her.

i think if she's had auditions before when judges start speaking its to agree to terminate the audition. I just think its this that threw her.

simons fault

i think people are still going to forensically examine this for some time to come.

are we, as a society, so jaded that we can't just accept that a little girl tried to sing a song on tv, forgot the words and got upset ?

do we have to look for a conspiracy ?

Sorry to be blunt, but have you actually stopped to consider whether this is rational behavior?

.... All in the name of "tripping up" a 10 year old girl who appeared on your TV for a few minutes.

The show controls the acts. It's increasingly more evident. Aidan, Good Evans, Ben and Becky, Hollie... and a few last year.

I've deliberately not criticised song choices this year, since it's likely Cowell's pick!

As for Hollie in the semis, she simply forgot the words. Anything else is just a coincidence. She was tripping up before she lost it.

Since the show began people sang the same song - Paul Potts did if memory serves.

Doesn't mean anything and is also a gamble as people can be turned off by hearing the same song/act again.