Arixsandra Libantino sang a version of Jennifer Hudson's "One Night Only," which left Cowell and fellow judges Amanda Holden, David Walliams, and Alesha Dixon speechless.
"An 11-year-old girl should not be able to sing with that much maturity. I think everyone in that room was gobsmacked," Dixon told UTV.
"It's one of those moments we know is going to define the show - we're watching possibly TV history in the making, we all get that thrill and we think this is a YouTube moment," Holden said.
Aside from a standing ovation from the judges and the crowd during her audition, Libantino also drew a 2-thumbs-up from Cowell.
"OMG," he told Libantino. "You're superhuman."
"You're one of the best auditions we've had so far," Cowell said.
"You did literally lift the roof off this building," Holden told the girl. "It was absolutely incredible."
"You have the gift and thank you for sharing it with us today," Dixon said.
Walliams, meanwhile, predicted that Libantino will be a famous singer one day.
Controversy
Her audition, however, drew flak from some people.
According to UnrealityTV, bosses of the ITV network had to speak in defense of their show and Libantino, after the first episode of 2013 aired on Saturday night.
"Having an 11-year-old girl sing an adult song like this is simply sexualising children. It’s incredibly damaging because this show is marketed at primary school children," Mediawatch UK director Vivienne Pattison told The Daily Mail tabloid.
"ITV appear to have completely ignored the Ofcom guidelines – I don’t even know why they put the guidelines out. This kind of thing is not what families want to see," she said, apparently unhappy with Libantino's mature version of the Hudson song.
ITV, meanwhile, is unfazed.
"In its seventh series, Britain’s Got Talent celebrates variety and showcases a wide range of different acts. Mindful of our family audience, the performance was carefully edited to ensure it was suitably inexplicit," the network said in a statement.
Below are the lyrics of Hudson's "One Night Only," which is clearly a song best avoided by children:
You want all my love and my devotion
You want my love and soul, right on the line
I have no doubt that I could love you, forever
The only trouble is, you really don't have the time
You've got one night only, one night only
That's all you have to spare
One night only
Let's not pretend to care
One night only, one night only
Come on, big baby, come on
One night only
We only have 'til dawn
In the morning this feeling will be gone
It has no chance going on
Something so right has got no chance to live
So let's forget about chances, it's one night I will give
One night only, one night only
You'll be the only one
One night only
Then you have to run
One night only, one night only
There's nothing more to say
One night only
Words get in the way
One night only
One night only
One night only...
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source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
