Innova girls go live on TV this Thursday

And, after an agonising wait the local Irish dance group Innova were given the thumbs up by judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams.

Another local talent who was eyeing up a place in the live shows was John James Glass.

Unfortunately the singer wasn’t fancied by the judges, and his time has ended on the competition.

Innova will now compete against 44 other hopefuls for the chance to be crowned the winners of Britain’s Got Talent 2014, which includes a £250,000 cash prize and a spot at this year’s Royal Variety Show.

The Portstewart-based group wowed the panel during the Belfast auditions in January with their “unique twist” on classic Irish Dancing, prompting Simon Cowell to hail them as the reason he wanted to come to Belfast.

Taking time out from rehearsal yesterday morning (Monday), Kyra Archibald one of the Innova dancers said that ‘things had gone a little bit crazy’ since the news broke.

“We actually knew that we had got through to the live shows a few weeks ago, but we weren’t allowed to say,” said Kyra who is from Articlave.

“It’s been a very hard few weeks for us all, as you can imagine.

“People have been asking us about the show, but we have all been sworn to secrecy.”

Kyra added that the girls were in London at the weekend rehearsing for their live performance this Thursday night.

“We were actually in the airport when the show was being aired, so we had to watch it through facetime.

“News started filtering through at the airport, and we actually ended up dancing the routine that we did on the first audition in Belfast for those waiting to board the flight to Belfast from Stansted. It was all a bit surreal.

“I think things are just starting to sink in for us all now.”

The live shows attract millions of viewers each night.

Kyra wasn’t giving away too much about their performance: “We’re flying to London on Wednesday afternoon as some of the girls have exams on Tuesday and Wednesday, then we’ll be live on Thursday night.

“We’ve been working hard on a new routine.

“It’s totally new, no one has ever seen it before.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but there are a few surprises,” said Kyra.

“Many of our parents and friends are coming along too. We are hoping that as the only Irish act left in the competition that we will get everyone behind us.”

* Tune into ITV1 this Thursday night at 7.30 as Innova take to the stage as one of nine hopefuls in the penultimate live semi-final.

We’ll find out if the girls have made it through to the final after voting lines close on the later results show at 9.30 on ITV1.