Best of 2013: Alex & Sierra, Michelle Chamuel, Luke Friend top list for Talent Show Performance

For the latest edition of our Best of 2013 series, it’s time to stop focusing on some of the shows and the people who make them, and focus in on specific moments. These are songs, dances, are comedy acts that you watched on TV, and then probably watched on YouTube a couple of times more over the weeks that followed.

Since we are focusing today on Favorite Talent Show Performance, we wanted to give you a chance to really take a look at everything you’re voting on in case you missed some over the year. Thanks to that, we’ve got videos of all of the moments below, which range from the funny to emotional. The one thing they have in common? They’re all awesome.

Alex & Sierra, “Say Something” (“The X Factor” USA) – Instead of saying anything else about this season, let’s just focus on how awesome and breathtaking this Alex & Sierra performance was. If these two don’t end up winning the season, then there is clearly something wrong with the voting. Heck, there may be something wrong with America.

Bill Nye, “Weird Science” (“Dancing with the Stars”) – This obviously looks like the joke choice, but the reality here is that you can’t argue with the success. It’s the most viral clip in “Dancing with the Stars” history, and while Bill’s dancing was pretty terrible, you can’t deny how it warmed all of a generation’s heart to see him again after growing up watching him on TV.

Candice Glover, “Lovesong” (“American Idol”) – Remember when three out of the four judges didn’t put Candice in their top three when Ryan Seacrest asked them during a results show? This performance was mostly Candice delivering the vocal smackdown on all of them. Easily one of the top 5 performances ever on the show, and this is one that has had crazy incredible moments in that same list from Adam Lambert’s “Mad World” to Fantasia’s “Summertime.” (Just ignore someone making a demon sound into one of the audience mics at one point.)

Jack Carroll, audition (“Britain’s Got Talent”) – Probably the most endearing moment of the entire year for us was basically seeing our personal mini-me come out on stage and tell hilarious jokes. Given how many dreadful comedians have been on this show, it’s kind of funny that the best one (save for David Walliams, anyway) is a child.

Jasmine Harper and Aaron Turner, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (“So You Think You Can Dance”) – Our favorite pair of the season, even they were unfortunately stopped short of winning the title in the end. Really, picking any one performance from these two was difficult, but this combined some of that storytelling with beautiful dancing that carried both of them so far during the season.

Kenichi Ebina, Trapped piece (“America’s Got Talent”) – One of our favorite reality show winners ever. Kenichi was only the second non-singer to win this show, and he did so by really breaking all conventions of dance acts by using technology, humor, and at times emotion to tell a story. To us, this performance was his most complete in showing everything that he can do.

Luke Friend, “I Will Wait” (“The X Factor” UK) – There were lots of good performances from this show in 2013, but we typically like to ask one very simple question when it comes to choosing a favorite performance: Which one have we watched to time and time again? Out of all the choices on “The X Factor” UK this season, it is this Mumford & Sons cover.

Michelle Chamuel, “I Knew You Were Trouble” (“The Voice” season 4) – “The Voice” has been on a pretty good tear the last two seasons just when it comes to quality talent … and Michelle brought plenty of it to the stage time and time again. But it wasn’t just the performance of this Taylor Swift hit that made it work; it was that mixed with the energy and the electric arrangement. We were exhausted after watching her work the stage.