Over the years practice and preparation have been at the cornerstone of Julian Smith’s life, by his own admission hardly a day has passed in the last 20 years when the 39 year-old hasn’t honed his saxophone skills.
Super-cool Julian, now the proud possessor of the Britain’s Got Talent 3rd place title, is thanking his lucky stars he practiced so hard leading up to the grand final, because if he hadn’t he may have ended up embarrassing himself due to a recurring problem that kept flaring up during his rehearsals:
“I practiced a lot and learnt a valuable lesson because of it. During my run-throughs whenever I got to the last note, I seemed to take my eye of the ball, and kept going badly out of tune!
“I was petrified the same thing would happen when I got out on stage for real, so I just focussed really hard and was determined not to make the same mistake in my live performance… luckily for me when it came to my performance I was able to hit the last note perfectly, and ended up finishing the song really strongly… without all that practice I would probably have hit a bum note and would not be standing here now as the 3rd placed act.”
How does coming third feel? Like a wonderful achievement or a case of so near but yet so far?
“Although I didn’t win the series, coming third on a show like Britain’s Got Talent won’t do any career any harm, I’m sure! The exposure I’ve had has been fantastic; I’ve had so many warm messages of support from people on the internet, and I believe it will give my career the platform it needs so I can go out there and sell records.
“The whole experience of being on this show has been absolutely wonderful, I feel so lucky that Britain’s Got Talent has happened during my lifetime, because as a saxophonist this is the only show out there I could have entered.
“I don’t know what the future holds for me but whatever it may be; I am looking forward to it!”
Watch Julian's Final performance