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Britain's Got Talent audition - what on EARTH do I do about this?!

78 replies

BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 11:47

DD (10) wants to be a pop star when she grows up - the only problem is she is a truly DREADFUL singer; she literally cannot sing a single note in tune. Earlier in the year she was bugging me to let her audition for BGT and I said no as I thought it could be humiliating/upsetting for a young child. But as the weeks went on and she was getting more and more obsessed about it I relented and said that she could fill the form in, in the assumption that she'd never get picked for an audition anyway and so it would be a non-issue.

Well she's only just got a bloody audition! (she doesn't know this yet). It's early on a Saturday morning, miles away from where we are and we're going to have to stand there for hours and hours and she will be bored stiff - at the best she'll get to sing one verse and they'll politely say no thanks, at the worst she might be laughed at. Absolutely NOTHING is going to come of it but she's really going to get her hopes up :( So do I let her go, so that she at least has the experience and will know that I am supporting her - but this runs the risk of her being really disappointed. Or do I shield her from it all (she's a sensitive little soul) and not tell her that she got the audition? (she has forgotten all about it, tbh).

I know I shouldn't have let her apply in the first place but I really thought that nothing would come of it - and I can't change that now :(

WWYD?!

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AngelsLieToKeepControl · 01/11/2013 11:50

I just wouldn't tell her about it tbh. Then I would get her some singing lessons Grin have you ever recorded her singing so she can watch herself?

Thisisaghostlyeuphemism · 01/11/2013 11:50

Your dilemma and user name made me laugh just a little bit. Sorry!

I think I wouldn't mention the audition. If she asks I would say nothing.
Then I would feel really bad.

Whitershadeofpale · 01/11/2013 11:51

I wouldn't normally endorse lying but in this instance I would and maybe use it to lead into a conversation about how we all have talents (list hers) but that we can't all be good at everything we'd like to be.

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gussiegrips · 01/11/2013 11:52

I'd let her think she wasn't picked for audition and see if there's some singing lessons she can have?

I'd not be encouraging a 10 year old to be exploited by enter BGT.

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BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 11:55

She has got a CD of herself singing - she thinks she's brilliant! Which just goes to prove how she cannot hear a tune :o I've promised her some singing lessons at some point...

I've just done a bit of Googling and it appears that this initial round is done in front of one TV producer, so I'd imagine that they are going to be polite and it's not like there will be a room full of people laughing and pointing. I feel like I'd be the worst mother on Earth for not telling her about it - but then this is equal to how much I do not want to get up at silly o'clock and spend a fortune travelling for hours and standing in the cold! Perhaps I should suck it up and treat it as my punishment for giving in to her nagging instead of sticking to my guns.

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neolara · 01/11/2013 11:55

I wouldn't tell her and I wouldn't go.

gamerchick · 01/11/2013 11:57

I had the same but we went. You do stand all day but the queue is really interesting. When it's your turn you're taken into a room with a director and song for him/ her while being taped. Just before you're called you're put into the main room where tins of people are practising with film crew flying about. It's really exciting for them. You don't get laughed at.

Then you wait to see if you're invited back for a second interview which is when you decline if you're invited.

Seriously it was a mega experience for my daughter and she loved it. There is no laughing or being told no thanks. They whittle them down in separate interviews before you get anywhere near that stage.

I really would let her have the experience.

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BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 11:57

gussie, the exploitation of it really bothers me - I can't even bear watching it! I hate it when the really dreadful people get an audition, just so that we can laugh at them. I'm assuming that they wouldn't do this to a child but you never know...

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gamerchick · 01/11/2013 11:58

*producer not director.

AngelsLieToKeepControl · 01/11/2013 11:58

My dd also cannot sing a note, I gently encouraged her over to dancing instead and she is doing brilliantly at that, any chance your dd could be persuaded that her talents lie elsewhere? She will need to be able to dance to be a pop star after all Wink

gamerchick · 01/11/2013 11:59

Fwiw I had the exact same fears.. but it's not like how you're thinking.

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BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 12:00

ooooh, gamerchick, that is very interesting and helpful, thank you!

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BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 12:01

Is your DD a good singer though, gamerchick?

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Thumbfuckerwitch · 01/11/2013 12:01

Hmmm, hard one!

I mean, she's got the audition BUT chances are she won't get any further BUT if someone else tells her she can't sing then she might believe them BUT she might improve with lessons but have her confidences destroyed by being told she can't sing BUT it's a long bloody way to go and hours to wait only for her to be disappointed AND you're her mum and don't want her to get her feelings hurt - does that kind of sum it up? Halloween Wink

I think you should take her to the audition, tbh. I think. It will be An Experience - and it might put her off entering again next year! If you pretend she didn't get in this year, you might have to go through it all again next year.

The only thing I WOULD say though is that if the TV producer who interviewed her thought she might be "good value" for the TV show (they must think about some of them or we'd never get to see them!) then I'd be declining that option in no uncertain terms.

gussiegrips · 01/11/2013 12:02

I'll bet there's a rock club, or funky choir, or something musical in your area. Let her have fun, let her have the experience of auditions - but, for Simon-we-need-a-token-loser-a-token-tragic-story-and-a-token-cute-kid-Cowell? Nope, wouldn't let my kids anywhere near it.

Happily, they are devoid of both talents and aspirations.

Gamer did you decline the second audition? I'm glad you had fun at the day, but, it's my idea of hell on earth.

I'd not tell her, and I wouldn't feel bad about it either.

Thumbfuckerwitch · 01/11/2013 12:03

Xposted (took me so long to write that post!) Grin

gamerchick · 01/11/2013 12:05

No she can't and even though she's auditioned for bgt and X factor she still doesn't know she can't;) but she loved the experiences.

I really would let her do it.. she'll be on air for days afterwards Grin

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BritainsGotNoTalent · 01/11/2013 12:08

I'll bet there's a rock club, or funky choir, or something musical in your area

There is but - get this - she doesn't want to do these because she wants to be a soloist Hmm Darling, yours is a voice which needs to be surrounded by others.

I tried having a gentle chat once about how she might be better to focus on x/y/z instead as I thought that she had a more natural talent for that than for singing - this was apparently the most cruel and hurtful thing anyone had ever said.

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gamerchick · 01/11/2013 12:08

She didn't get a second audition for bgt but did for X factor which she didn't do. I think there are quite a few stages before getting picked for the show. The good ones and the 'entertainment'. But none of that at the first audition.. its surprisingly good fun.

ZombieMonkeyButler · 01/11/2013 12:08

I definitely would not tell her about the audition. I'm not sure I would want my DD to audition at 10, even if she had the best singing voice I'd ever heard TBH. Not for BGT anyway.

gussiegrips · 01/11/2013 12:14

Arf-ing at soloist ambition.

God love her

KeemaNaanAndCurryon · 01/11/2013 12:17

Get her singing lessons. ASAP.

KeemaNaanAndCurryon · 01/11/2013 12:20

Posted to soon.

Sometimes kids can hold a tune after singing lessons, if she can't then the teacher will help you get it through to her that it's not going to happen.

At least then you've tried. Hopefully she'll think about a different career then.

BerstieSpotts · 01/11/2013 12:34

I think it might be good to do it. They tend to be kinder to children who don't make the grade and I would imagine it's the ones with pushy parents that make better TV so you probably won't even get past the initial stage.

I think if she's going to continue to ask/insist it would be better to do it before she's a teenager as teenagers seem to be "fair game" for the humiliating comments :( 10 is on the cusp but provided she's not too "attitude"-y towards other adults then she should get away with it.

Look at local theatre groups who do musicals. They will often want children to do solos and if you pick the less competitive ones (not Stagecoach etc but if there is one run by a subset of your local council for example) then they tend to be less about talent and more about confidence. It's possible that the interest will die out but if it doesn't, she'll probably get to find out about singing lessons etc through this which pretty much every professional singer will do at some point.

BerstieSpotts · 01/11/2013 12:36

Oh although have re-read and perhaps it would be kinder to just not mention it and/or say that she should have got a letter now if she had been picked. But follow up the theatre stuff.