22 Golden confetti

« We have had rappers and singers since the beginning of the show, I'm not going to lie some had better skills than you do, I'm not saying that your skills are lacking, you got real skills and I can hear that you trained a lot to reach this level but you have something they didn't, the way you transmit your emotions ? You are the first one that can do it, even Greg that doesn't understand a word of English could feel the waves you sent. Thank you for your performance, it's a yes for me ! »

It was one of the female judges that spoke, she looked at Sam with appreciation, he had without a doubt the best performance of the day as today's contestants weren't very good.

Suddenly when she finished speaking the first man that spoke to Sam when he got on the stage raised his hand and slowly, as if he was trying to attract everyone's attention on it he reached for the golden button on the middle of the judges's table. When he pressed it too much things happened, first the room became illuminated in golden lights and tons of confettis were thrown on the stage with a loud explosion sound, then everybody in there stood up and started either laughing, clapping, screaming or whistling. That button was the « golden buzzer », it meant that Sam was going directly to the live semi finals, each judge had one and one only golden buzzer during the auditions part, it was originally added to break ties when the four judges were in disagreement, this time it probably wasn't needed but it could send Sam directly to the next stage.

« I'm not going to speak much, your performance was impacting. I loved the song, I loved your energy, the way you changed Eminem's original lyrics without losing any of the originals feelings. I'm giving my golden buzzer on the first episode but it's worth it. »

The judge said while standing up and going on stage to shake hands with Sam.

« Thank you very much, I won't let it go to waste. »

Replied Sam, he came stressed for no reason. That's when he realized it, usually when you are stressed it's because you are afraid of failing but from the beginning he had no chance to lose on this stage, even if he didn't get the golden buzzer he would at least have gotten 4 yeses.

Then he was guided back to the waiting area, he couldn't find a moment to talk about his YouTube channel but well, it wasn't over, he still had time to make it.

Seeing him get into the waiting area everybody still there looked at him

« Hi Sam, my name is Lola. Do you want to have a drink later ? »

A girl came right away to talk to him, she was a really cute blonde with blue eyes, a bit too much make up but well, she was going on TV so it was normal to want to look beautiful, she was dressed in a white and red dancing dress, she looked really beautiful but she wasn't Sam's type so he politely refused, with the smile of course.

« I'm very sorry but I got things waiting for me right now, maybe another time. »

Saying that he started leaving but was called back

« Wait ! How can there be another chance if you don't at least leave me your number ? »

Actually he was saying that out of politeness, he didn't think she'd really want another time...

« Oh right sorry, give me your phone. »

She gave it to him and he wrote it, he thought of giving a fake number to avoid being annoyed but it was very mean so he gave the real one, one day he would have a drink with her and that would be all, he could have refused her straight away but would it be embarrassing to be rejected in front of such a crowd ? Everyone's eyes were still on Sam.

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That night Sam slept extremely well, he got home from the audition around 8 PM, he called Em and had a conversation about everything with her, she told him about her day, he did the same and finally ate a bit and went to sleep. All that stress had made him tired like never before. He slept until 11 the next morning and woke up very satisfied, he didn't have to wake up early today as the second part of the show would come in two weeks, they still had 6 episodes of auditions to shoot, he was lucky to be in the first one.

Since he was in Paris he decided to use this opportunity, today he would do the same as he did in Toulouse and sing in public. He didn't have anything to do anyway so it was a good opportunity.

Today nobody would be there to hold the camera for him so he took a tripod with him, he would do a fixed plan of him and that would do the job for now.

He ate a breakfast, dressed lightly with a white oversized shirt and folded his sleeves, add to that a simple black pants and white shoes and he had the perfect relaxed look, this time he used some asian celebrities to inspire his look, he always felt like they had a great fashion taste... even though sometimes it was a bit too eccentric.

Finally he got on his bike and went toward the Eiffel Tower, there were three places in Paris that would be packed with people during the day first was the Arc de Triomphe, then there was the Louvre museum and finally he guessed that the Eiffel Tower must probably be the most popular touristic spot.

He found a place, set the camera and sat down on the ground to start playing. Recently he had been listening to an artist that he loved very much, her name was Umi so he thought of doing her a tribute he did a cover of her « Remember me » and « Butterfly » songs, both where his favorite so he started with it.

It wasn't unusual to see artists coming here to make shows so nobody was surprised to see Sam doing his thing and most of the natives didn't take the time to look, they were tired of it but this place had way more tourists than natives, people came from everywhere in the world to visit Paris. Most of them were Chinese, Korean and Japanese though, and these people were a great public, at each song's end they would cheer.

As he had made another « subscribe to my YouTube channel » sign, some from the hundred of people around him went to check it out. Stats from 10 years ago said that each 4 seconds there was a visit at the Eiffel Tower so Sam didn't lack public, he just kept doing his thing and the crowd kept growing.

Now that he had tens of thousands of subscribers on YouTube this method wasn't as effective as it used to be in the beginning but he still loved this feeling of singing for people, whenever he opened his eyes and saw a smile in the crowd he would be happy himself. Until he got the system he didn't know that making people happy could make him happy, he had another objective now. It was a bit selfish but he wanted to make people happy to make himself happy.

That night also he slept very well, recently he felt like his life was going on the right path and he was very happy about it.