10 acts vie for a $1 million prize and the ‘America’s Got Talent’ title

10 acts vie for ‘America’s Got Talent’ title

LOS ANGELES — A 75-year-old comedian, five tap-dancing sisters, a contorting breakdancer and a drum quartet will face off against six vocal acts during the final competition on “America’s Got Talent.”

Viewers chose the 10 finalists through phone, e-mail and text message votes. Judges Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff forfeited their weekly “judges’ pick” during the semifinals and allowed the top vote-getters to proceed to the final showdown.

“Judges can do whatever they want on this show,” host Nick Cannon said. “Anything goes.”

Variety is the hallmark of the vocal finalists: There’s an opera singer, three harmonizing cowboys, two singer-guitarists, a smooth baritone and a trio of singing siblings.

Morgan deemed opera singer Barbara Padilla of Houston “the red-hot favorite” to win the show’s $1 million price and chance to headline a Las Vegas show.

“That was the single greatest vocal performance we’ve ever had on ‘America’s Got Talent,’” he said of her semifinal song, “Ave Maria.”

The Voices of Glory, two brothers and a sister from Highland, N.Y., tend toward gospel material. Kevin Skinner, a chicken farmer from Mayfield, Ky., has been playing guitar since he was a kid — mostly on his porch.

“You’ve come a long way from that porch and you’re going to go a long way further,” Hasselhoff told him during the semifinals.

Drew Stevyns, of Sykesville, Md., is self-taught on guitar, though he has studied music since he was 5 years old. Hasselhoff picked the Texas Tenors, a trio of cowboy-hat-wearing men from Houston, as “the front-runner to win this competition.” Morgan, meanwhile, deemed Lawrence Beamen of California “the new Barry White.”

They’ll put their vocal skills up against the comedy of Grandma Lee of Jacksonville, Fla., who developed her joke-telling talents after her husband died of cancer in 1995; the rhythms of Recycled Percussion, a quartet from Goffstown, N.H. that drums on old buckets, hubcaps and other found items; the fancy footwork of The Fab Five, tap-dancing sisters from Morgan, Utah; and the contorting moves of breakdancer Hairo Torres of Grants Pass, Ore.

Viewers can vote for their favorites after Monday’s performances. The winner of “America’s Got Talent” will be announced Wednesday.