America’s Got Talent was thoroughly spooked this week as illusionist The Sacred Riana reached the quarter-finals of the show.
Having thoroughly creeped out the judges in the earlier stages, Riana presented a whole new act involving a bunch of lookalikes and a seriously unsettling moment in which she scaled a wall.
However viewers never got to see the end of it as it abruptly cut to an ad break when the show was screened on US TV – leaving everybody wondering exactly how the stunt ended.
So just who is The Sacred Riana – and is she really as scary as she looks? Here’s what you need to know:
Who is The Sacred Riana and where is she from?
While she might look and act like a character out of a horror movie, The Sacred Riana is actually the alter ego of Marie Antoinette Riana Graharini, who is 26 and is from Indonesia.
Riana, who is the daughter of a magician, originally found fame in Indonesian talent show The Next Mentalist, finishing runner-up in that series.
However she really made her mark after winning the 2017 series of Asia’s Got Talent, pulling off this little stunt in the grand final:
Riana has a very distinctive style on stage – with her long-sleeves, pinafore dress and white tights – and is always accompanied by her doll, Riani.
She also never speaks except on stage (in that weird vibrating voice), and almost never breaks character either, although has occasionally made TV appearances as herself on Indonesian talk shows.
What is her look based on?
Riana’s look – with her long hair falling over most of her face – is inspired by Sadako Yamamura, the psychic ‘ghost girl’ from the Japanese horror classic The Ring.
Meanwhile her doll Riani has been compared to the creepy doll Annabelle, part of The Conjuring series of films (whose own origin story hit the big screen in 2014, with the sequel Annabelle: Creation, released in 2017).
What did she do on America’s Got Talent?
Riana’s initial act revolved around a newspaper headline about a fire which had claimed several lives, with the culprit having committed suicide. She asked Mel B to choose the guilty party from a series of Polaroids – only to thoroughly freak her out when the person she had chosen then appeared behind her in a photo.
The act led Howie Mandel to declare: ‘You should go away now,’ while Simon Cowell – who hit his buzzer midway through – told her: ‘You should go and watch some Disney movies or something.’
However Riana made it through to the Judges’ Cuts stage and proceeded on to the quarter-finals – although her act involving lookalikes and wall-climbing was mysteriously cut off for an ad break midway through, leaving viewers baffled.
Has she made it to the next round?
Sadly no. Riana was eliminated from the series following the latest round of public voting.
Where can I watch America’s Got Talent in the UK?
The series is currently streaming on Netflix, with new episodes added every week on Thursdays.
