By Stefan Doering, Founder and Manager of the London Gay Big Band
The last few months have been an absolute whirlwind for our act, La Voix and the London Gay Big Band, since we first auditioned back in February on Britain’s Got Talent…
Rocking up to the Hammersmith Apollo with 20 musicians and a drag queen certainly made quite an impact. The atmosphere was amazing – thousands of people in the audition room, all hopeful acts trying to impress the judges. Cameras, lights and runners everywhere, creating a frenzy of activity. Time flew by as we were busy all day long being interviewed, filmed, talking to the other auditionees and putting in some last minute practice time before the big moment.
And then, finally, the moment we had all been waiting for – the judges arrived and the London auditions had begun. We were waiting back stage in the wings to be called for our audition. And then… those famous words ‘the judges are ready for you now’ came from the producers and we all shuffled on stage.
We were ready for this. We’d been rehearsing, gigging and performing for the last three years and then finally the biggest moment of the Band’s career to date had arrived. We knew our audition piece, ‘New York, New York’, (the Liza version, of course, not Sinatra!) would go down an absolute storm. And we blew the roof off. The Hammersmith Apollo erupted in applause and cheers.
The judges comments were amazing after our audition. David Walliams gave us two ‘yes-es’ – one for him and one for Simon (who was on ‘baby duty’ that day) and Alesha proclaimed, “That’s how you make an impact!” Amanda said it was the perfect act to perform for the Queen! Four glorious ‘yes-es’ and we made it through to the next round.
It hadn’t quite sunk in.
Fast forward a couple of months later to the reveal show, where the judges whittle down the 200+ acts that got through the first auditions to just 45 semi-finalists. The pressure was on! Would an LGBT group and a drag act make it, past Simon Cowell’s judgement, to the live semi-finals of BGT 2014?
The anticipation at the reveal was absolutely nerve-racking. All acts from the entire country were about to find out whether they had got through or not… And at least three-quarters were going home.
AND WE MADE IT! LA VOIX AND THE LONDON GAY BIG BAND WERE THROUGH TO THE LIVE SEMI-FINALS OF BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT!
What an incredible feeling for our small, but focused community group and our fabulous, hard-working drag artist La Voix to get through to the next stage… a stage which will see us perform to a live television audience of 10 million people.
So, as we prepare to perform on Saturday’s show, our emotions are running high. It’s an honour and a privilege to spread our music, our freedom, our expression and our spirit to the nation and across the world. We take our responsibility seriously – sending a message to LGBT people worldwide of celebration. And we hope we will deliver it in the most fabulous and inspirational way!
So, if there’s one thing you do this weekend, tune in to ITV on Saturday night at 7pm – and VOTE FOR LA VOIX AND THE LONDON GAY BIG BAND!
Support us: Twitter @LGBigBand and @lavoixtheshow and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/londongaybigband
