List of Britain's Got Talent finalists (series 5)

The fifth series of Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV between 16 April and 4 June 2011. After initial rounds of auditions, forty semi-finalists were chosen to perform across five live shows, with eight appearing in each of the semi-finals. The act from each show who received the highest number of public votes went through to the final automatically. They were joined by either the second or third placed act, with the four judges declaring who they wanted to go through. In the event of a tie, the second finalist was determined by the public vote.

Each of the acts performed again in the final on 4 June 2011. Jai McDowall won the competition after finishing with the highest number of public votes. Ronan Parke finished in second place, with the difference in the votes being 2.5% between the first and second place contestants. Singing group New Bounce finished in third place, followed by dancer Razy Gogonea and singer/guitarist Michael Collings. Paul Gbegbaje (6th), Les Gibson (9th), Steven Hall (7th), James Hobley (8th), and Jean Martyn (10th) were the other finalists.

Winner

Jai McDowall

Jai McDowall (born 1986 or 1987), aged 24 at the time of the show, was a support worker from Tarbolton in Ayrshire. Scotland He entered the competition as a singer, and although he had been singing for many years he had not received any professional vocal coaching. He was a member of Ayr Amateur Opera Company and Loudoun Music Society. He played roles such as Frank in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof. McDowall auditioned for The X Factor in 2010 and reached bootcamp. He auditioned in Liverpool for the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent, receiving positive comments from the judges. In the semi-finals he sang "Bring Me to Life" and received positive comments from the four judges. He reached the final where he performed "To Where You Are". Despite not being one of the favourites, he was crowned the winner of the competition and won the £100,000 prize and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance.

Runner-up

Ronan Parke

Ronan Parke (born 8 August 1998), aged 12 at time of the show, is a singer who came second in the series. He lives in the south Norfolk village of Poringland, near Norwich and attends Framingham Earl High School.

There were allegations that Simon Cowell had been "grooming" Parke for two years before he auditioned on the show, but Cowell and Parke both denied having had any prior contact. Cowell said on the semi-final edition, aired Friday 3 June 2011: "There have been allegations made ... on the internet, that Ronan Parke has a previous recording contract with my record label, that I'd met him before, both of which are complete and utter lies. The first time I met Ronan was when he appeared on the show, he entered it of his own accord. He is 12 years old, this is a deliberate smear campaign and it is my job as somebody who works on this show to make sure whoever this liar is, is exposed, and Ronan is treated the same way as everyone else and it will be the public who decides." Cowell has called in the police to assist him in locating the source of the leak, which is said to be from within Sony Music UK. The police investigation was later abandoned, with a spokesman for Scotland Yard implying that the allegations may have been a publicity stunt to boost the show's ratings.

Parke wowed the judges and received a standing ovation from them and the audience in his audition, a rendition of "Feeling Good". He was put straight through to the Britain's Got Talent Semi-Final, in which he sang "Make You Feel My Love". He won the Semi-Final, and went on to the final, in which he sang "Because of You".

Other finalists

New Bounce (3rd)

New Bounce (ages 12–16) are a boy band made up of four boys. They came third in the competition with 8.9% of the public's vote. In the semi-final they sang "Price Tag" and for the final they sang "Ain't No Sunshine".

Earlier in the competition, there was controversy that many of the members of the group were professionals.

Razy Gogonea (4th)

Razy Gogonea, (born 3 June 1982) is a breakdancer. Originally from Romania, he moved to England to be closer to his girlfriend. After his successful audition gained him three yeses, the judges were unsure if they were going to put him into the semi-finals. The judges re-auditioned him against fellow dancer Michael Moral and Gogonea won the dance-off. He performed again semi-final 5 on 3 June 2011. He was the outright winner of the semi-final, with 36% of the public vote. He then performed again in the final, coming 4th place with 8.4% of the public vote.

Michael Collings (5th)

Michael Collings is a 19 year-old father of one who lives in a caravan. He auditioned in order to make a nice living for him, his girlfriend and his son. When he reached the final he was praised by Simon Cowell for his amazing voice. He finished in fifth place.

Paul Gbegbaje (6th)

Paul Gbegbaje is a pianist. He stunned the judges by the fact that he had only been playing the piano for about 5 years. He was chosen by the judges and he went through to the live shows. In semi-final 1, he performed a medley of songs. He was subsequently voted into the top three in his semi-final, where the judges were split between him and trialbiker Joe Oakley. The judges' vote was 2-2, so the earlier public vote was referred to. It was revealed that Gbegbaje had more votes. In the final, he performed his own song which he said "defined him as a person". He finished in sixth place.

Steven Hall (7th)

Steven Hall is a comedy dancer from Kendal, Cumbria. He auditioned in Manchester. In semi-final 4, He was chosen by the judges to go through to the final over Edward Reid, a comedy singer, with a 3-1 majority. However, if the public vote was referred to, Reid would have been in the final, as Reid had more votes than Hall.

James Hobley (8th)

James Hobley (born 14 June 1999, aged 11 at the time of the show) is a dancer. He was born in a seaside town of Redcar in Teeside, England, he was one of the twins in the family who was diagnosed with Autism. He studied freestyle disco and ballet and was offered a free scholarship. Hobley started dancing career at 8 years old, and entered many competitions and won many awards and trophies. His success story was filmed as part of a TV documentary on BBC Three, titled Autism, Disco and Me. In December 2009, Hobley auditioned for Sky 1 HD's Got to Dance but his audition was not shown. In 2011, he applied to be on Britain's Got Talent and the producers accepted him through to the main audition stage. His audition was aired on 7 May 2011, and the judges were quoted to have said that he was "inspirational". Ultimately, he was successful in the audition stage and entered the semi-finals, his performance in which was broadcast on 1 June 2011. He was sent through to the final by a 3-1 vote against bell ringers Gay and Alan on the judges choice. He appeared in the final on 4 June 2011 and finished in eighth place with 3.5% of the public vote.. James attends Sacred Heart School, Redcar.

Les Gibson (9th)

Les Gibson is an impressionist. He came 9th with 2.8% of the public vote. Gibson has been professionally impersonating people for 13 years.

Jean Martyn (10th)

Jean Martyn is an organist who lives in Staffordshire. A graduate of Trinity College London and the Guildhall School of Music, Jean has had a long career as a pianist, theatre organist, Wurlitzer, and church organist. Jean has a vast repertoire, ranging from classical, jazz, and arrangements from musicals.

See also

• List of Britain's Got Talent finalists
• Britain's Got Talent (series 5)

External links

• Britain's Got Talent Finalists at itv.com