British Tabloid Newspaper The Daily Star has been criticized after it ran an article that claimed that a 12 year old girl had cheated on the popular talent show Britain’s Got Talent.
The young girl, Beau Dermott, was sent straight to the semi-finals of the show after her stirring rendition of “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked impressed the judges. (and yes she was able to hit the high ‘F’.)
The audience in the auditorium in fact screamed “press the golden buzzer” before judge Amanda Holden obliged them, which allowed Beau to skip another round of eliminations.
But the euphoria of her victory was cut short when The Daily Star ran the headline “BGT New Cheat Storm” accompanied by a picture of Beau, for its April 12th edition.
The article said that bosses of the show had kept secret the fact that Beau has had singing lessons once a month at Stage Pro, a top arts school based in Warrington and had participated in local talent show competitions.
The internet backlash was immediate:
Not exactly raw talent: #BGT hopeful, aged 12, hiding secret past https://t.co/C5yciEVGKC pic.twitter.com/BAn2Zptyna
— Daily Star (@dailystar) April 9, 2016
@Daily_Star how dare you regardless of what lessons this child has had she has true talent dispicable knocking a child
— deb brown (@debbiebrown5) April 11, 2016
@Daily_Star using daily mail integrity there and turning on a young girl well done I hope you feel bigger and better for it!
— Jon Hambrey (@Jon_Hambrey) April 10, 2016
Beau’s parents have also have hit back on claims that their daughter has cheated.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Ian and Karen Dermott have made it clear that all they did was nurture their daughter’s talent and that they do not see anything wrong with that.
“Cheat is a big word and it’s not nice,” Ian said. “All our daughter has done is had singing lessons locally and entered a few talent contests along with scores of other girls her age.”
“We know the cliché of the stage-school brat and that’s not our daughter. You only need to spend five minutes in her company to know that she’s just a lovely, normal girl,” he explains
They also defended her enrolment in Stage Pro. “It’s not some posh academy; it’s a local stage school that offers dance and singing lessons. It’s a place where Beau could go on a Saturday morning,” Ian says
Still though with talent like hers, no tabloid there is or was is ever gonna bring her down.
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