Latest news with #I'mGonnaBe(500Miles)'
Daily Mirror
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BGT finalist opens up on tough year as he's only ever had '£500 in the bank'
Britain's Got Talent finalist Vinnie McKee has opened up on the difficult year his family has faced after the death of his brother A Britain's Got Talent finalist has opened up about the staggering impact winning the £250,000 prize would have on him, confessing he's never had more than £500 in his bank account. Vinnie McKee, who left the judges spellbound with his operatic rendition of The Proclaimers' hit 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)', earned himself the coveted Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell, catapulting him directly into the live shows. Overwhelmed by the turn of events, Vinnie emotionally stated, "Things like this don't happen to people like me." Now a contender in the final, Vinnie, who works at a holiday park, is among the eight acts vying for public votes. In a candid chat with Yahoo!, reports the Express, Vinnie shared that the thought of winning such a substantial sum was so foreign to him that he might "pass out" from the shock. He admitted: "I don't think I've had any more than £500 in my bank." The 30-year-old also touched on the tough times his family has endured following his brother's passing and the unwavering support from his parents. He affectionately remarked, "My mum is my best friend, and my dad is my best friend. We are such a close family. "They're 70 this year. So I would probably get them a wee apartment so they don't have to use their pension to pay their rent anymore." Reflecting on his journey since his Britain's Got Talent audition, Vinnie described the variety show as "the most incredible experience in my life," adding: "I hope it never ends now." He continued: "Life is so short, my brother passed away last May, and it broke the family a little bit." Vinnie remembered his mum encouraging him to apply for Britain's Got Talent following their family tragedy, and of his Golden Buzzer moment, he said: "It was a whole turnaround moment. "When the confetti fell on stage, I looked up to the sky and I just thought to myself: 'Thanks for that.' He was watching me that day."
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Walking every day whatever the weather
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Any exercise is better than no exercise, and one Sioux Falls man is sure to get in his steps whatever the weather. A lifelong sports fan, Sioux Falls resident Brad Green made the decision to get off the bench in 2022. He put on a pair of Air Jordan shoes and started walking, inspired by The Proclaimers' song 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)'. McCook Lake bill waits for panel action 'I've never really had an exercise plan so it was just something to do to be outside among the elements and just try something new, more or less,' Sioux Falls resident Brad Green said. He was also motivated by his girlfriend, Kym, who was training for a half-marathon at the time. 'Just had to keep up with her. She was going to be the runner, I was going to be the walker, so it was just kind of fun, little competitive edge there too,' Green said. Next Monday will mark Green's 1,000th consecutive days of walking outdoors, and much like this frigid day, the weather doesn't always cooperate. 'A year ago, we had that one blizzard and I got up at 7:00 a.m., it was 35-below wind chill and at 7:00 p.m. it was going to be 50-below wind chill. I was like, 'I better go now', so I put four layers of clothes on and walked around the block a couple times and called it good,' Green said. He walks wherever his travels take him, including a trip to Target Field in Minneapolis. 'I'm on their tradition wall, that was a gift from my family when they built the stadium, so it was nice to find my name on the wall, see the Kirby Puckett statue, see the Sid Hartman statue, stuff like that,' Green said. Green sends a selfie to about 30 family and friends each day to document his journey. 'He was a good manager, loyal, he was at every game and every practice for many, many years,' former Washington basketball coach Jim Trett said. Jim Trett is a retired high school basketball coach. Green was his student manager for three seasons at Washington. They were even inducted into the Warriors' Hall of Fame together in 2017, Green as a manager and for his unwavering support of Washington. Today, Trett and Green remain friends. 'It doesn't have to be hard, physical stuff, but it's something you can enjoy and something you'll keep doing. Too many people try to do too much and they quit, and so this is a really good thing, it's an inspiration, which is really cool,' Trett said. 'A lot of people are saying 'Brad, you inspire me'. I'm like, 'me? really? Brad Green? Maybe',' Green said. He's showing no signs of slowing down. 'Initially, it was 500 miles and then it was 1,000 miles to beat the song, then it was a year, but now I think I want to do all fifty states,' Green said. And he's bound to find some warmer weather. Green says he's even managed to lose a few pounds through walking. He currently averages about a mile per day, but says he'll hit 2,000 miles total sometime this spring. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The Baftas need more than David Tennant's awful jokes to get people to care about them
How do you get people to care about the Baftas? This Sunday night, Britain's foremost film ceremony faced the same uphill battle that every awards show faces this year: distracting controversies, audience fatigue, and, with some noteworthy exceptions, a rather middling lineup of films. The Baftas' solution, it seems, is to go with the tried and true, tapping David Tennant for the second year running to host its star-studded ceremony. Don't get me wrong: audiences seem to love David Tennant. The Scottish actor kicked off the BBC's Baftas telecast with a skit set backstage, in which he received passive-aggressive advice from a number of famous faces – Helen Mirren; Brian Cox – who materialise in his dressing room mirror. Cox's Logan Roy-tinged pep talk segues into a kilt-clad rendition of The Proclaimers' 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)', which Tennant belts out while walking into the Royal Festival Hall auditorium, enlisting many of the seated stars in attendance as backing singers – James McAvoy, Harriet Walter, Selena Gomez among them. In the wrong hands, this kind of kitsch and cringey opening would seem downright excruciating. Tennant, earnest and boyish, just about sells it. What follows is less convincing: a series of trite one-liners about the major nominees, which mostly just serves as a reminder as to why the major US awards shows usually have practiced late-night comedians handle this sort of thing. Remarking on the Bafta-nominated Dune: Part Two, Tennant quips that he 'naively thought' a sequel to Dune would be called 'July'. Discussing Timothée Chalamet's range of roles over the past two years, from Willy Wonka in Wonka to Paul Atreides in Dune: Part Two, to Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Tennant jokes that 'The Tims, they are a'changing.' A gag punning on Vladimir Putin and the dating app Tinder ('Putin-der') was met with a robust laugh on the telecast; according to colleagues who were in attendance, the line actually prompted widespread groans. I suppose it's better to keep things light, given the somewhat fraught discourse surrounding this year's awards season. Mostly, this has to do with Emilia Perez, the Spanish-language musical about a transgender crime boss that was, for a period, tipped to become a major contender this year before a controversy surrounding its female lead Karla Sofía Gascón, and her history of offensive tweets, seemingly derailed it. Unsurprisingly, there was no mention of the scandal in Tennant's patter; the film did win two Baftas, for best international film and Best Supporting Actress, out of a total 11 nominations. That the night's biggest winners were The Brutalist and Conclave – the former an ambitious but daunting epic about a Hungarian architect, the latter a just-alright middlebrow thriller set in the corridors of papal power – attests to just how hard of a sell this year's slate has been. This time around, there is no Oppenheimer, last year's awards juggernaut that was also a box office smash hit. The concessions to popular cinema this year, namely Dune: Part Two and the musical adaptation Wicked, were, as predicted, shut out of the major categories, though did enjoy some success in the technical fields. The ceremony quickened and slowed as the presenters came and went. Stephen Merchant was the surprise highlight of the evening, funny and confident as he presented the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Elsewhere, the ceremony was more watchable when it played things straight: Warwick Davis's heartfelt tribute to his late wife, when receiving the Fellowship Award, for example, or David Jonsson's endearing acceptance speech for the Rising Star award. It was an underwhelming ceremony for an underwhelming awards season. It's significant, perhaps, that the Oscars have gone bold with their choice for the forthcoming ceremony – hiring Conan O'Brien, a genuinely surprising and inventive comedian, as the host. The Baftas went safe, and safe is what they got. Tennant may well walk 500 miles to host a Baftas ceremony. I wouldn't walk as far as my front door to go and see it.
