Mohamed 'MB14' Belkhir is a French beatboxer who reached the Semi-Finals of Series 16 of Britain's Got Talent. He was aged 28 and was a performer at the time of his audition. He received Ant & Dec's Golden Buzzer.
Before his performance, Belkhir stated he began singing as a teenager in choir lessons and how he got into performing when he attended drama class in High School. He also stated that when he was a teenager he would watch lots of footage of the judges and acts performing on the show and felt a lot of inspiration when he did so and as such he wanted to convince the judges that he deserved to be performing in Britain.
In his audition, Belkhir performed a beatbox routine, recording sections of his voice and playing them over each other using a loop pedal to his own original song entitled ‘Pyramids’. Bruno remarked 'That is the power of music that it gets you and it makes you want to dance', with Amanda adding 'It just felt cool, it felt now [and] we've seen nothing like it [beforehand]'. After his audition, Ant & Dec pressed the Golden Buzzer, sending him directly through to the Semi-Finals.
In his Semi-Final performance, Belkhir performed a version of 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio using only his voice. Simon remarked 'There were parts of this performance I didn't like, and then there were parts I loved', with Alesha adding 'That is one of the best performances I've ever seen during a live show'. He reached the Top 3 acts of the night, however was eliminated after a tied Judges Vote reverted back to the Public Vote wherein he placed 3rd.
Before BGT[]
In 2015, 2016, and 2017, Belkhir reached the Semi-Finals of the Grand Beatbox Battle in the loopstation category.
In 2016, Belkhir placed as Runner-Up on the French version of 'The Voice' whilst on Mika's team.[1]
Additionally in 2016, Belkhir reached the Semi-Finals of the 2016 French Beatbox Championship in the soloists category.
In 2018, Belkhir reached the Quarter-Finals of the French Beatbox Championship in the soloists category.
In 2019, Belkhir performed with French beatboxing group Berywam for the last time at the 5th World Beatbox Championship. In the same year, Belkhir would go on to win the Battle of the Year Beatbox Battle.[2]
In 2021, Belkhir competed on the All-Stars version of the French equivalent of 'The Voice', where he placed 3rd on Florent Pagny's team.[3]
In 2022, Belkhir played the lead role of Antoine Zerkaoui in the French comedy drama film ‘Ténor’.
Controversy[]
Due to the fact that Belkhir placed 2nd on The Voice of France in 2016, 3rd in its All-Stars equivalent in 2021, and is a former member of beatboxing group Berywam many viewers believed that Belkhir was scouted for the show by producers and that it was unfair that a professional beat boxer should be awarded a Golden Buzzer from the shows hosts Ant & Dec.[4]
Trivia[]
- He is Ant & Dec’s second consecutive Golden Buzzer act to be eliminated in the Judge’s Vote.