Uri Geller predicts performance by top pop star

Since the launch of his reality series, master magician has read minds, stopped time and generally enchanted a sizable TV audience.

By NATHAN BURSTEIN
uri geller 88 298 (photo credit: Courtesy)
uri geller 88 298
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Since the launch of his reality series in November, master magician Uri Geller has read minds, stopped time and generally enchanted a sizable TV audience with each Saturday's episode of The Successor. For his next trick, the host of Channel 2's biggest winter hit will conjure up a major British pop star. That, at any rate, was the pledge Geller made Saturday night, promising fans that he'll bring one of the UK's most popular singers to Tel Aviv next weekend for a one-song performance on his show, which focuses on the psychic's search for a professional heir.
Click for upcoming events calendar! Describing the period between shows as an opportunity for audience members to "test [their] intuition," Geller proceeded to name five potential performers, one of whom will fly to Israel to film the special episode. The performance, Geller said, was arranged during a visit last week to London, where the self-described "mentalist" has lived for much of the period since he left Israel 35 years ago. Amateur mystics can predict for themselves whether Geller's guest performer will be Liam Gallagher singing the Oasis smash "Wonderwall," Annie Lennox singing Eurythmics hit "Sweet Dreams," former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell performing "Wannabe" or Bee Gees alum Barry Gibb singing "Staying Alive." A fifth possibility is Phil Collins, who would take the stage with Genesis hit "Jesus He Knows Me." Saturday's live Successor taping would mark a first visit to Israel for most of the prospective performers, though Halliwell's former bandmate, Melanie Chisholm (also known as Sporty Spice), gave a concert in Tel Aviv in February 2001. Collins performed his first Israeli show in November 2005 between stops in Beirut and Dubai. Whichever artist ultimately takes the stage, it doesn't take a psychic to predict a ratings spike for The Successor, which garnered massive audiences in its early run but has seen viewership decline in recent weeks. The show is set to wrap up its first season later this month.