Last night (Friday May 30) was the last semi-final of the TV show Britain’s Got Talent in which the last two contestants to go through to tonight’s live final were chosen.

Like the rest of this week’s semi-finals, the show was broadcast live. This morning, the event that everybody is talking about is 10 year old singer, Holly, breaking down and sobbing on stage. Now the question is being raised – should young children be put through such a nerve racking and potentially distressing ordeal?

Last night, Holly began singing her song when she was overtaken by nerves, stopped and started to cry. Her mother and Amanda Holden went to the edge of the stage to comfort her, then Ant and Dec came on. It was quickly apparent that the the two hosts (Ant and Dec) were being told through their earpieces that there was no time for Holly to try again. One of them had to tell Holly and the audience. At that point, the young girl just sobbed and sobbed inconsolably. It was very upsetting to watch.

At this point, Simon Cowell stepped in and said she could sing again, that they would manage somehow and that is what happened. Fortunately, Holly’s second attempt was successful and she was one of the two contestants put forward to today’s final.

“Personally, I don’t like to see young children competing in talent shows with adults.”

Personally, I don’t like to see young children competing in talent shows with adults. Sometimes their material is inappropriate to their age – I’m not comfortable with a pre-pubescent child singing adult love songs for example. Other times, they are cute and sing well enough for a child but would most people really want to listen to them for any length of time?

Occasionally, you see a real child prodigy, someone who is immensely gifted. In this case, does it do a child any favours to put them in the spotlight before they are physically and emotionally ready for the stress?

I remember Lena Zavaroni who rose to fame on Hughie Greene’s talent show, Opportunity Knocks, here in 1974 at the age of 10. She had a big voice and a personality to go with it, apparently. She won the show week after week and went on to sign a recording contract. She had hit records here in the UK and in the USA where she appeared with Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball and her success continued into the early 1980s.

“If a child is extremely talented, why not nurture that talent and encourage it until the child is old enough to deal with the gift…”

Tragically, the stress took its toll. Within a couple of years of winning the talent show, she was suffering with anorexia. She eventually got married but it ended in divorce. By the 1990s she was living on state benefits. She suffered from depression, was operated on in hospital in 1999 and died of a chest infection within 3 weeks just a month before her 36th birthday.

I think this is a lesson in what can happen to children who are famous too young. If a child is extremely talented, why not nurture that talent and encourage it until the child is old enough to deal with the gift and its consequences?

Perhaps Britain’s Got Talent should have a lower age limit, perhaps 12 or 14 years old but maybe parents should think long and hard before encouraging their children to enter such serious talent shows. If they lose, they are likely to be bitterly disappointed and possibly discouraged from building on their talent. If they win, the consequences could be more stress than they or their family can ever handle.