Well, I have just finished watching the Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) final results, and I am simply content with the result. I have to say that I am sick of singers winning! Last time I checked, this was “Britain’s Got (a variety of) Talent”. Not, “Britain’s Got (only singing) Talent”. It seems that this show is turning into a spring version of the “X-Factor”! I was rooting for Razy (a.ka. Mr Matrix Man) and really loved Jean Martyn too. What can I say? I love variety and I love different talent! That is my quirkiness!
Anyways, despite Mr Matrix Man not winning (boo!), I am so what pleased with where he came in the competition. He came 4th, and if you remove the top 3 contenders (New Bounce, Ronan Parke and Jai McDowell, who are all singers…), in a way I guess you can say he won! Well he did in my eyes!
To be honest, I was really scared that people would not vote for him on this pretence that this is “Britain’s” got talent. This just takes me back to what I always question and like to investigate which is, what exactly does “being British” mean?
Is it not just an identity discourse that we bind ourselves within? There is this idea of us ‘needing’ to hold onto some racial/national identity to give ourselves a place in this world.
As a self-confessed Anglophile, and someone who claims to be Jamaican, and to be British…I really wonder how we can denote the term “British”, or the phrase “Britishness”.
I feared that the “British” people would not vote for Razy for this ignorant reason. I have seen on many online forums and social networking sites that people think he should not be on the show, let alone win, because “he is not British”. Now, I do not stand by that one bit. I think he had every right to win, just as much as someone who was born in Britain and is on the show. Yes okay, he might have been born in another country and recently come over to England…but why can he not be considered British? Is he not living here? Is he not reveling and indulging in British culture? Can he not be proud to be a British citizen, hence be “British”? I do not understand. Thoroughly, I do not.
I should stop before I get too deep.
All I can say is, hold tight for my documentary where I shall be going around London, investigating what exactly “being British” means, and to find out what others think about who can have the ‘right’ to call themselves British, and what “Britishness” is.
Signed: “The Anglophile”
