Magician Sacred Riana raises the bar with UNBELIEVABLE magic GoldenBuzzer, Britain’s Got Talent 2025
Simon Cowell reveals singer Cheryl turned down Britain’s Got Talent judging role
Updated / Monday, 17 Feb 2025 21:00
Simon Cowell has labelled Amanda Holden the “Britain’s Got Talent queen” as he revealed singer Cheryl turned down a judging role on the show.
The popular ITV talent show returns for its 18th series on Saturday with judges Cowell, Holden, singer Alesha Dixon and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli.
TV duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly return to host the show, with social media star and musician KSI joining the panel as a guest judge.
Cowell said of 54-year-old TV and radio presenter Holden, who has been on the judging panel since the first series, that the secret to her BGT success is that she “loves the acts”.
He explained: “That’s her, she honestly loves it. You know, every time I talk to her it makes me laugh because I say, ‘you are loving this, aren’t you?.’
“Because there are days where I’m knackered and there’s still an hour to go.
“And I’m like, wow, it’s been a long day, and she’s like, ‘yeah, but it’s brilliant, isn’t it?.’
“She is our Britain’s Got Talent queen and she deserves that crown.”
The music mogul added: “And you know what? She was an interesting booking because we’d offered the role to Cheryl Cole, as she was known in those days.
“A week before filming, she calls me and goes, ‘I just can’t do it’ and wouldn’t give me a reason. I think she was freaked out.
“We literally had two judges and a week to book someone. I just knew it had to be Amanda because I’d met her and I really liked her, she was very funny and I just thought she’d fit the show perfectly.
“Fast forward 18 years and she’s still a huge success and we have become great friends. I do consider her one of my best friends.”
Girls Aloud member Cheryl has previously been a judge on Cowell’s former ITV singing show The X Factor, serving on its panel from 2008 to 2010, joining the show’s US version in 2011, before returning between 2014 and 2015.
Syco Entertainment boss Cowell went on to speak about a near death experience he went through while filming the latest series when he was asked to lay next to a line of watermelons as a contestant smashed them with a sledgehammer.
The 65-year-old said: “It’s that feeling when you kind of think somebody doesn’t want you on the show anymore. It was that.
“It was the closest, genuinely, where I’m thinking, ‘they actually want to kill me.’
“And I swear to God, that’s how I felt because this guy got really nervous and he’d slipped and was shaking as he was smashing these watermelons.
“The health and safety guys, normally quite annoying, actually stopped him. Thank god, they saved my life.”
Host McPartlin said he and the rest of the cast were “scared for Simon Cowell’s life” and added that there is “a lot of danger” in this year’s series.
Last year’s series of Britain’s Got Talent was won by singer Sydnie Christmas, who sung Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the show’s final winning with 27.2% of the vote.
She beat out numerous other contestants including runner-up Jack Rhodes, a magician, and third-placed dance duo Abigail And Afronitaaa.
The show has run since 2007 and has produced winners including Susan Boyle, Paul Potts and Diversity.
The series’ champion receives £250,000 in prize money and the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance.
Britain’s Got Talent will return on Saturday, 22 February, at 7pm on Virgin Media One.
Source: Press Association
International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate
As the largest economy in the world and a land of immigrants, the United States (U.S.) attracts people from across the globe who want to live, work, and study here. International clients are an important market niche served by REALTORS®.
Since 2009, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has conducted an annual survey of its members to measure the volume of U.S. residential real estate transactions with international clients, gather information on the origin, destination, and buying preferences of international clients, and identify the challenges and opportunities faced by REALTORS® in serving foreign clients.
The 2024 Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate presents information regarding REALTOR® transactions with international clients who purchased and sold U.S. residential property during the 12-month period of April 2023–March 2024. This report is based on an online survey that was conducted from April 4–May 19, 2024. The survey was sent to 150,000 randomly selected REALTORS® and to members of state and local associations, which also conducted surveys of foreign buyers.1 To correct for over/undersampling at the state level, NAR weighted the distribution of responses to the distribution of NAR members by state as of May 2024. A total of 17,060 REALTORS® responded to the national market survey, of which 1,407 reported an international residential foreign buyer. Information about the characteristics of international clients is based on the most recent closed transactions of the respondents during the 12-month period.
The term international or foreign client refers to two types of clients:
- Non-resident foreigners (Type A): Non-U.S. citizens with permanent residences outside the U.S.
- Resident foreigners (Type B): Non-U.S. citizens who are recent immigrants (less than two years at the time of the transaction) or non-immigrant visa holders who reside for more than six months in the U.S. for professional, educational, or other reasons.
In this report, the number of foreign buyers and the number of properties purchased are used interchangeably, assuming that one foreign buyer purchased one property.
Key Findings
- $42 Billion – Dollar volume of foreign buyer residential purchases during April 2023–March 2024 (2.0% of $2.1 trillion of the dollar volume of existing-home sales)
- 54,300 – Number of foreign buyer existing-home purchases during April 2023–March 2024 (1.3% of 4.06 million existing-home sales)
- 57% – Foreign buyers who reside in the United States (recent immigrants; less than two years at the time of the transaction) or non-immigrant visa holders (Type B)
- $475,000 – Foreign buyer median purchase price (compared to $392,600 for all U.S. existing homes sold)
- 50% – Foreign buyers who paid all-cash (compared to 28% among all existing-home buyers)
- 45% – Foreign buyers who purchased a property for use as a vacation home, rental, or both (compared to 16% among all existing-home buyers)
- 76% – Foreign buyers who purchased a detached single-family home or townhome (compared to 90% of all existing-home buyers)
- 45% – Foreign buyers who purchased in a suburban area (similar to 47% among all existing-home buyers)
Top Foreign Buyers
- Canada (13% of foreign buyers, $5.9 B)
- China (11% of foreign buyers, $7.5 B)
- Mexico (11% of foreign buyers, $2.8 B)
- India (10% of foreign buyers, $4.1 B)
- Colombia (4% of foreign buyers, $0.7 B)
Top Destinations
- Florida (20%)
- Texas (13%)
- California (11%)
- Arizona (5%)
- Georgia (4%)
1 Responses from oversample surveys of the Canopy Association of REALTORS®, Central Carolina Association of REALTORS®, Chicago Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®, Greater Metropolitan Association of REALTORS®, Houston Association of REALTORS®, Long Island Board of REALTORS®, Piedmont Regional Association of REALTORS®, California Association of REALTORS®, Ohio REALTORS®, and Texas REALTORS® were added to the national random sample. The total set of responses was weighted by the distribution across states of NAR members with a primary specialization in residential real estate.
