Simon Cowell sees the aerial silks and starts to lose interest. Paul Nanari, a father of three from Sydney, has crossed the world to perform, but he has chosen an apparatus Cowell doesn’t particularly like. Then Paul lifts himself into the air while still seated in his wheelchair. Later, an assistant puts a blindfold over his eyes, and he ascends again.
By the time Cowell delivers his verdict, he has changed his mind. He calls the performance one of the most incredible things he has ever seen, then presses the Golden Buzzer. Across this video, performers bring him to that decision through very different means: a voice, a parkour routine, an aerial act and a father’s words to his son.
The pleasure is in watching the judgments form. Cowell sometimes jokes, sometimes reassures and sometimes runs out of things to say. The performers arrive with their own doubts, too. One singer has spent years wondering whether losing a competition has settled the question of what he can become.
Matty Jay wants another answer
Matty Jay can barely contain himself when he meets the judges. He waves both arms, smiles at the crowd and tells the panel, “I can’t believe you guys are real people.” He is 27, originally from the Philippines, and has spent the past three years living in Glasgow, where he works part time as a waiter.
He has come to Britain’s Got Talent to challenge a description he has been applying to himself: “a singing competition loser.” Asked about his previous experience, he mentions Idol in the Philippines. His ambition has survived, but so has the memory of losing.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when he is asked whether he watches Star Wars. “No. I’m too gay for it,” he replies. The exchange gets a laugh before he has sung a note. Asked about his dream, he says he wants to sing every day, make music and “conquer the world.”
After the performance, the judges talk about his range and the change they saw when he took the microphone off its stand. “Your range is insane,” one tells him. Another wants more of whatever he has to offer. The praise answers the fear Matty brought onstage with him.
Cowell compares Matty’s excess to putting thousands of spoonfuls of sugar into tea, then points to the audience: “This, I think, is the biggest reaction we’ve had from anyone.” He hits the buzzer. Matty drops to his knees beneath the gold confetti.
Afterward, Cowell shares the decision with the crowd. “This is your golden buzzer as well,” he tells them. Matty’s own response is shorter: “Ma, golden buzzer.”
Ruben takes the audition outside
Ruben Rodan, 23, arrives from Málaga, Spain, looking nervous. Someone helps explain his dream to the judges: he wants to inspire people and travel the world doing parkour. Soon the panel is trying to work out where he has gone.
“He’s outside,” comes the answer.
Ruben rolls up his trouser leg to reveal a prosthetic leg. He then jumps across metal scaffolding and moves between obstacles outside. Back onstage, he holds a two-handed handstand on top of stacked black blocks. The routine gives the judges several different skills to assess: jumping, landing, balance and control.
Only afterward does Ruben explain that he had an accident involving a tractor while growing up in the countryside. He offers the account briefly. By then, the panel has already watched him complete the course and hold his balance above the stage.
Cowell calls the performance “bloody fantastic” and tells Ruben, “I have so much respect for your talent and your courage.” Then he presses the Golden Buzzer. In the congratulations afterward, Ruben struggles to describe how he feels and keeps thanking the people around him.
A glass of water before the gold
Lei, a 14-year-old singer from Texas, has a clear reason for entering this year. She believes her performances have improved and she feels more confident. On the day itself, she is both excited and nervous.
The judges give her time. She accepts an offer of water, declines a sandwich and waits as Terry Crews walks onstage carrying a bottle. It is a small, practical pause before asking a teenager to sing in front of a packed audience.
“Right. No more questions. Good luck,” Cowell says.
After she sings, he asks whether she wants to hear what he thinks. His answer is brief: “Words aren’t necessary.” He presses the buzzer, and her jaw drops.
Sofia Vergara has a complaint. She had leaned toward Cowell during the performance and discussed giving Lei the Golden Buzzer herself. “He stole her from me,” she says afterward. Cowell admits that when Sofia asked whether she should press it, he discouraged her, then claimed the moment himself.
The teasing continues, but Cowell gives Lei a direct assessment when she returns to speak to the judges. He says he closed his eyes for a moment and struggled to believe she was the person singing. “You got such a gift,” he tells her, before urging her to take the opportunity.
Paul changes Cowell’s mind
Paul Nanari introduces himself as a husband and father before revealing much about his act. Asked whether he thinks he will win, he jokes that the stopover in Abu Dhabi was too painful for him to do anything else. The panel knows he has travelled from Australia. They still have no idea what he is about to attempt.
He pulls himself upward on red silks with his wheelchair beneath him. The judges’ reactions become more alarmed as he adds the blindfold and, high above the stage, wraps the silk around his neck. “Oh, you are a madman,” one says.
The escalation explains why the panel has so much to say afterward. They were already impressed by the first part; Paul then increased the difficulty. One judge calls it one of the greatest things they have ever seen. Another says they are speechless.
Cowell returns to his first reservation. “They’re called silks. Right? I’m not a huge fan.” He follows that with an admission: “I’ve now changed my mind.” He praises Paul’s talent and manner before walking to the centre of the desk to hit the buzzer.
Paul later explains why that approval means so much to him. Cowell has been around a long time and has seen so much. Getting the Golden Buzzer from him has left Paul “very, very happy.”
A father asks for a cuddle
Sonny begins with a school drop-off. His seven-year-old son had been embarrassed in front of his friends and hadn’t wanted to give him a cuddle. Sonny called him back anyway. Then he wondered whether his son would ever be too old for that, and wrote a piece for him to read when he was ready.
“Now it don’t matter how old you get, you’re never too old for a cuddle from your dad.”
He builds the poem around advice his son may need years from now. Listen. Tell your family you love them before leaving home. Buy your mother flowers. Learn to cook eggs, make your bed, work hard and rest. He speaks about faith while promising not to force his views on his child.
His delivery includes pauses, repeated words and fresh attempts at a line. He keeps returning to the offer of a cuddle. As he reaches the passage about never tiring of seeing his son have fun, his two young sons run onto the stage and embrace him.
“Your audition really affected me quite deeply,” Cowell says afterward. He later presses the Golden Buzzer for Sonny. By then, the boys have already given their father a response he can hold.
Watch the full video for those exchanges before and after the performances: Matty explaining what a previous loss did to his confidence, Lei accepting a drink of water, Paul hearing Cowell reverse his judgment. Stay for Sonny’s poem and the moment his sons join him onstage, then the comedians who bring the judges back to laughter.