America's Got Talent Finalists, including Cas Haley and Butterscotch, Selected

Finalists, including Cas Haley and Butterscotch, have been selected for America's Got Talent, NBC's variety talent show contest where the winner goes home with a $1 million cash prize. Last week, ten acts were whittled down to eight. This week cut the competition in half and the performers had to do a selection of the judge's choosing.

Cas Haley, the guitarist-singer, made his way to the finals with his reggae-and-beach vibe style of music. Cas performed the UB40 version of "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You". He later gave an energetic performance of Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke".

Another fan favorite, Butterscotch, also made it to the finals. She's probably one of the more multi-talented acts in the competition, constantly wowing the audience and judges with her beat boxing, piano playing, and singing-sometimes all at once! The Davis, California native dropped the beat boxing to sing "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye for the judges. Butterscotch later dazzled everyone with an astonishing all-out beat box performance, complete with break dancers, a graffiti wall, and trash cans on fire.

Several voices were selected third for the America's Got Talent finale, but they all came out of one mouth: ventriloquist Terry Vator. Known for his variety of puppets and dead-on impersonations, the judges challenged him with a song styling he hadn't tried yet- country. Terry responded with a cowboy puppet singing Garth Brooks. For his own selection, Terry declared in the pre-show interview that he was going to go all out. Terry brought back the turtle puppet and performed Roy Robison's "Crying", high notes and all.

Rounding out the finalists was the youngest contestant left, Julienne Irwin. The country crooner, who normally did the classics, was updated by the judges; she was told to sing "What Hurts The Most" by Rascal Flatts. Later on, Julienne stuck to what she knew best and did a riveting version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow".

Eliminated from the America's Got Talent competition tonight were the Glamazons, a full-figured woman singing and dancing quartet; Sideswipe, the martial-arts, high energy act; Robert Hatcher, the smooth-crooning singer; and Jason Pritchett, the country song stylist.

The winners will be announced next Tuesday, August 21^st, in a live finale to be broadcast on NBC. Last year's winner was Bianca Ryan, and 11 year-old singer with a big voice. Her signature song was "And I Am Telling You" from the hit broadway musical Dreamgirls. Her debut album peaked at #51 in the U.S. charts.

Source:

www.nbc.com

URL:

http://www.nbc.com/Americas_Got_Talent/episodes/