Europe’s Got Talent – a tough job for the judges!
For the first time, a new category for pre-produced video entries was introduced this year and around half of the contestants had chosen to present their talent with a short video. This will probably remain a permanent feature of the competition, as it opens new possibilities to demonstrate skills that cannot be displayed in the school environment.

The judges represented the whole school community: teachers, parents (via AMPA MC) and S7 pupils. Two different panels were needed to evaluate around 20 candidates. The variety of different forms of expression was amazing and so was the spread of ages. The competition is open to pupils from P5 up to S7. After the first round the judges agreed on eight finalists – five live and three video contributions.

The grand finale took place on 18 May with a panel of six judges. AMPA was represented by its President, Reet Escribano. The show was open to the public and some of the finalists had brought their fan club along!

Antoinette Bobelet had put together an electrifying and versatile dance programme. Eric Scherpereel Arce impressed with beatboxing. Francisco Guiraum Font is a budding classical pianist. Natalia Gaja Pascual and Valentina Beckman Granda performed a happy song which they had written themselves, with the help of another young friend and accompanied on ukulele. Marc Aguilar Cataineu had put together a medley of movie scores, which he played on the piano and challenged the judges to identify.

In the video category the judges were delighted to discover the beautiful singing voice of Eve Traoré Lorenzo, the roller skating skills of Iago Vázquez Blanco (who was participating in a national roller skating competition that very day) and last but not least the kite surfing expertise of Borja Arbones de Cominges.

All finalists were brilliant and points were awarded for both technical skills and stage presence (for the live performers) and video editing (for the submitted videos). And the winners were….

Bronze to Eric, silver to Antoinette and gold to Marc in the live category. The winner in the video competition was Borja and he also got the overall trophy for the best entry. The judges were literally blown away by his entertaining and breathtaking kite surfing demo.

We are already looking forward to next year’s talent competition!