Jai McDowall

Jai McDowall (born 24 July 1986) is a Scottish singer–songwriter who won the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent in June 2011. As the winner, he received £100,000 and performed at the 2011 Royal Variety Performance. McDowall was signed to Syco Music, a subdivision of record label giant, Sony Music.

Before Britain's Got Talent, he appeared as a contestant on The X Factor and The American Idol Experience. His debut album Believe was released on 9 December 2011. The lead single "With or Without You" was released the same day. In March 2012, he was dropped by Syco after poor sales of his debut album. This prompted an outburst from the singer, who claimed that Syco boss, Simon Cowell, was anti-Scottish. Shortly after, the Mirror newspaper reported that the singer had, ironically, purchased a house on Fail Avenue.

Early and personal life

McDowall was born and lives in Tarbolton in Ayrshire, Scotland where he worked as a support worker prior to winning Britain's Got Talent. He was a member of the Ayr Amateur Opera Company and Loudoun Musical Society. He played roles such as Frank in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof.

December 12

December 12 is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 19 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Debut Album (Sayuri Ishikawa album)

Debut Album (デビュー・アルバム, Debyū Arubamu) is the debut and first studio album by Japanese singer Sayuri Ishikawa (石川さゆり). The album was released on 25 August 1973 by Nippon Columbia (日本コロムビア). Of the twelve songs in the album, four are original songs written for Ishikawa. The other eight songs are covers.

Track listing

Singles

Kakurenbo (かくれんぼ) was originally released as the first single of Ishikawa with Tsugaru no Sato (津軽の里) as its B-side.

Aoi Tsukiyo no Sampo Michi (青い月夜の散歩道) was Ishikawa’s second single with Anato to Watashi no Mura-matsuri (あなたと私の村祭り) as its B-side.

Personnel

The album came with a 60 cm x 30 cm centerfold portrait of Ishikawa. However, the sleeve does not credit the photographer for the portrait nor for the album’s cover photo. Even though this album was released in Ishikawa’s debut year 1973, Ishikawa is not credited with the title “Columbia Princess" (コロムビア・プリンセス), the title used by Nippon Columbia to promote the artist in her debut year.

2011

2011 (MMXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2011th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 11th year of the 3rd millennium, the 11th year of the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2010s decade.

2011 was designated as:

It was marked by a wave of revolutions in the Arab World known as the Arab Spring, including the beginnings of several unresolved protest movements and armed conflicts.

Events

January

Got Talent

Got Talent is a talent show television format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's SYCOtv company. A pilot was made in the United Kingdom in 2005, hosted by Paul O'Grady, but after O'Grady's split with ITV, the series was postponed, resulting in America's Got Talent – the first full series of the format.

It has spawned spin-offs in over 58 countries (as of April 2014), in what is now referred to as the Got Talent format, similar to that described by FremantleMedia of the Idol and The X Factor formats. In April 2014, the format was named the world's most successful reality TV format ever by the Guinness World Records.

History

Got Talent was an invention by The X Factor creator Simon Cowell, with comedian and talk show host Paul O'Grady producing a pilot for ITV in 2005 under the provisional title Paul O'Grady's Got Talent. O'Grady left the network after disputes with ITV, resulting in Cowell moving the concept to the United States while he and ITV searched for a new show host.

Due to these issues, the Got Talent franchise ended up debuting first as America's Got Talent on NBC on 21 June 2006, with judges David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan. The show's original series was hosted by Regis Philbin. In 2016, the judging panel consisted of Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Melanie Brown, and Simon Cowell, and hosted by Nick Cannon, who has been the presenter since 2009. The grand prize on America's Got Talent is $1 million, and, since season 3, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip. America's Got Talent proved extremely successful for NBC, pulling in high ratings in both total viewers and the younger 18-49 demographic. The show's initial success in America is credited with the eventual launch of the British series, and the overall global launch of the Got Talent franchise.