Britain's Got Talent 2014 semi-finalists revealed

The battle to be crowned the winner of Britain's Got Talent 2014 began in earnest as the names were confirmed for the semi-finals tonight.

Just 45 acts remain from the thousands who applied and the hundreds who auditioned, and they will battle it out for the prize of £250,000 and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance.

Teenage boys Bars and Melody are the bookies' early favourites, 5-2 at both Ladbrokes and William Hill.

From Wales and Bristol, they have only been together a short while, but have already begun writing songs together.

The boys blew the judges away with their own composition of Hopeful with lyrics they wrote from their own experiences of bullying.

They reduced the judges to tears and show supremo Simon Cowell pressed his golden buzzer.Another act tipped to do well is boyband Collabro.

Despite having only been together for one month, they impressed the judges with their performance of Bring Him Home.

Alesha Dixon described it as one of the strongest auditions she had seen.

Dancers Paddy and Nico are also highly rated with their talent for salsa acrobatic dance.

Paddy, 79, was born in Stourbridge but is now retired and lives in Spain. She started dance classes at Nico's dance academy and one year later they teamed up and began doing their acrobatic salsa act.

She left the judges astounded as her feet barely touched the floor during her audition.

Amanda Holden pressed her golden buzzer for Paddy and described her as "inspirational".

Swing band Jack Pack from London will be hoping to come out on top.

Made up of Alfie, Adam, Andrew and Sean, they really impressed the judges with their performance of the classic Frank Sinatra song That's Life.

Dixon took a particular liking to Alfie describing his voice as "the cream in the coffee".

Irish dance troupe Innova from Northern Ireland will be hoping to shorten the odds of them winning which currently stand at 40-1.

The dancers hope to further traditional Irish dancing, by putting a contemporary spin on it.Performing to a medley of current pop-hits, the dancers wowed the judges. Cowell loved the shock factor of it and labelled it as "very clever".

David Walliams pressed his golden buzzer for singer Christian Spridon.

He lives in London and has been working as a waiter for the past five years. He caused controversy between the judges after he performed Tom Jones's Sex Bomb.

Cowell disapproved of Walliams's choice, saying: "You made a mockery of that golden buzzer."

Dixon pressed her golden buzzer for singers REAformed, from London and Oxford, who have been together for six months and want to bring back urban music into the mainstream.

At their audition, Dixon immediately got behind them seeing the comparisons between them and her former band Misteeq.

Presenters Ant and Dec pressed their golden buzzer for comedian Toju.

He has loved comedy since an early age when he would sit for hours watching Laurel and Hardy and Are You Being Served? He has been working as a full time comedian for 20 years.

The first live show starts tomorrow night at 7.30pm on ITV.