Liverpool LMA dancers prepare for huge Britain’s Got Talent final after golden buzzer success

Liverpool will have a big reason to tune in to the 19th instalment of the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ final on Saturday, 30th May, as dancers from City Centre University LMA will take to the stage.

They are attempting to book their place at November’s Royal Variety Show and take home the £250,000 prize.

Led by choreographer Sadeck Barrabah, the 66-person group from LMA impressed the crowd, gaining a standing ovation in their audition. They earned the ‘golden buzzer’ from judge Alesha Dixon in the semi-final, sending them through to the live final at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Two of LMA’s grand finalists, Laura Chadwick from Stoke and Poppy Mayes from Barnsley, are about to graduate from LMA. They joined us to look forward to the competition’s final hurdle.

Hey guys, thanks for chatting with us. Firstly, what does it feel like to reach the final of Britain’s Got Talent?

Poppy: “It was really shocking! It didn’t feel real, and then we kind of like got back to the room where our phones were, and I looked through all my messages and my family had messaged, and it was like ‘wait, people have seen it, and that has actually happened’, it didn’t feel real until people had acknowledged it, I think.”

Laura: “Everyone was just crying because we were all in shock! I feel like going into it, we just wanted to do our best in the performance, but then, while we were listening to the comments, everyone was really nervous. Obviously, she pressed the buzzer so we knew we were going through. It was just a surreal moment because obviously we never expected that, we were just happy to take part in the competition, never mind being in the final. It was very overwhelming, but in the best way.

When are you all going to go down to London, and how is the preparation going?

Poppy: “So far we’ve been told we start rehearsals on Saturday, we’ve got a few days in Liverpool, and then we’ll do a few days in London.

Laura: “I think we’ll travel down to London on the 27th. Last time we got to travel down on Tuesday, so we had long rehearsals there, but this time it’s quite a condensed rehearsal period, so it’s definitely going to be intense.

So, tell us about the whole process of getting to be on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. How did you two get to be involved? There must have been a lot of competition.

Poppy: “Basically, they came into LMA and asked if they could give us some choreography. So our teachers auditioned us, then it was opened up to second, third-, and master ‘s-year students. Then we got emails telling us if we’ve got it or if we were an alternate.”

Laura: “We’ve had a jam-packed final year because of everything. I’m not sure how the Masters course works and how it has been for them, but there are three different year groups who’ve got to do it, and for the semi-finals they put some first years in as understudies.”

You got the ‘golden buzzer’ from Alesha Dixon at the end of the semi-final. What’s she like? Has she come across the same way as she does on TV?

Laura: “She’s really nice, once all the judges gave their comments, in my head I was thinking ‘oh never mind we’ve got not it’ so it was really keeping us waiting, which is obviously just exciting. We saw her earlier in the day, briefly before it. She was so nice, they’re really lovely people to work with. It was good to meet them and see that they are as nice as they come across on TV.”

Tell us about the other people in the final. Who should we be looking out for?

Poppy: “I keep seeing Rafferty (Coope) come up on my TikTok, and he is really good!”

Laura: “Yeah, he is. I feel like the magicians are going to be big competition because I’ve just seen a lot of the things about them from the public, and also their performances are all really good. I feel like all the finalists so far are going to be high competition. All the contestants who were on our show were really nice.

Amanda Holden said she preferred your audition to the semi-final performance, so is there a bit of pressure on you to absolutely blow it out of the water and just give absolutely everything in the final?

Laura: “I personally preferred this one (the semi-final) because it was so fun to work with the props.

Poppy: “We haven’t started the rehearsals yet, but we’ve been told by everyone higher up that we’ve got big things coming up and to be excited

What’s next for you?

Laura: “If we got the chance to work with the choreographer again, we’d all jump on it. It’s been an amazing experience to work with his team.”

Poppy: “It would be amazing, we’ve already finished university, BGT will be the last time me and you will be on stage together. We’d all be excited to work with everyone that we’re friends with again. For the semi-final, my mum did a little watch party with all my siblings and friends there. She got everyone there and got them all to vote. I think she’s going to do that again to get those votes.

Britain’s Got Talent will air live on Saturday, 30th May on ITV1 and ITV X.

Find the latest Liverpool news here.

Find out what’s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide. 

From the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North – visit thenorthernguide.com and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram HERE.