Diversity is a street dance troupe which gained fame for winning the third series of Britain’s Got Talent in May 2009. Formed in 2007, the troupe is made up of members from East London (Dagenham and Leytonstone) and Essex, and comprises three sets of brothers and four of their friends. Some are still at school or university, but the older members include an IT systems engineer, a bathroom installer and one in telesales. In their first year, they won the UK National Street Dance competition.

Their choreographer, Ashley Banjo, a physics university student, has said, “From the age of 14, I started to teach myself routines and since then I’ve taken on the role of choreographer.” The group have been confirmed to perform at the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 5, 2009.

Members

The group, aged 13–25 during the filming of Britain’s Got Talent, is composed of Ashley and Jordan Banjo; Mitchell and Sam Craske; Ike Ezekwugo; Perri Luc Kiely, Ian, Jamie and Matthew McNaughton; Warren Russell; and Terry Smith. They have all been great friends since they were youngsters.

Britain’s Got Talent

The group entered the third series of Britain’s Got Talent, and won the contest. The judges praised their performance, with Amanda Holden saying, “This show is just so brilliant because just when I think I’ve seen it all and nothing could get any better, you came on.”[5] Piers Morgan described their choreography as “genius” and said that Diversity is “right up there with the best of the dancers we’ve seen”.

Diversity were semi-finalists on Sunday 24 May 2009, but Susan Boyle won the viewers’ vote with Diversity and Natalie Okri battling it out for a place in the final based on the judges’ vote. Diversity won and went through to the final on Saturday 30 May 2009.

On the second of the two shows on Saturday 30 May 2009, Diversity reached the top three acts along with Susan Boyle and Julian Smith. After Julian Smith was revealed as having come third, Diversity were then announced as the winners despite the 16/1 odds against them, having received 24.9% of the total votes. Boyle then praised Diversity, saying, “The best people won.” Earlier that night, Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell said that Diversity’s performance was the only one that he would rank 10 out of 10. Congratulations, Diversity!

The group, having won the competition, will perform in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Show in December.