America's Got Talent
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Great songs have a life of their own. Consider “I Will Always Love You.” Dolly Parton’s original is the stuff of legend. Whitney Houston’s cover for the all-conquering The Bodyguard soundtrack, iconic.
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Now, there’s the Roland Abante’s heart-wrenching rendition for America’s Got Talent.
Abante, a fisherman from the Philippines, left nothing to chance as he belted out the classic ballad, hitting an array of high notes, with force, control and enough feel to touch everyone in the room.
A standing ovation awaited.
“Look at everyone here. They’re going crazy for you,” remarked Sofia Vergara. “People love you.” This qualifier performance she said, was a “good job tonight, you’re amazing.”
Did Simon Cowell like it? No, not exactly. “Somehow, I loved it,” he remarked. The acerbic Brit recounted how, during his emotional audition, Abante was “singing your life out on stage there. That’s what makes this competition exciting. People who come from all over the world to fulfill their dreams.” America, he remarks, “loves you.”
Fellow judge Howie Mandel remarked, “the perfect song, the perfect voice, it was spectacular. When he sang I will always love you, you just made everyone in the world love you. This was memorable. I believe this was the performance of a final.”
Heidi Klum loved the performance too, remarking that if there was access to a golden buzzer to push him through to the final, she’d hit it.
Sadly, there isn’t. Just two performers from this round go through. Now it’s America’s turn to vote.
Following his audition earlier in season 18, Abante, speaking through an interpreter, explained that he caught fish in the morning, and was a courier and ride-share driver through the rest of the working day. The extent of his stage activity back home is singing karaoke. Judging by his performances on the AGT stage, that lifestyle could be about to change.
Watch the performance below.
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America’s Got Talent is back on our screens, back in our lives. And for one AGT contestant, Gabriel Henrique, everything is golden.
Henrique, a 27-year-old from Brazil, on his first trip to the U.S. of A., auditioned for Tuesday night’s episode (Aug. 1) and made the very most of it.
Speaking with the assistance of an interpreter, Henrique admitted he spoke only “a little bit” of English, and he’s “just trying.”
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No matter, music is the universal language. And he’s fluent.
Putting aside some early nerves, Henrique threw himself into a cover of Whitney Houston’s “Run to You,” with enough energy and high notes to power a small town.
A standing ovation ensued, including all four AGT judges.
“If Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey had a baby, it would be Gabriel,” quipped Heidi Klum. ”Wow, you are incredible.”
“I did not expect that voice to come out of you. You sound like the best and finest pop diva that ever was,” Howie Mandel enthused. “You’re amazing.”
Simon Cowell went next. “People are going to really like you. You’re just so interesting,” he claimed. “I can tell that you’ve sang in church and you don’t know how good you are. It was amazing.”
Sofia Vergara had the last comment, and action. “I don’t have words, that was so perfect, spectacular. Your voice is beautiful. Your energy, who you are. It was perfect.” That performance was “something I was waiting for, something very beautiful and very heartfelt.”
Before the panel had time to vote, Vergara put a halt to proceedings and triggered the golden buzzer.
Watch below.
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Auditions for America’s Got Talent continued on Tuesday (July 18), and saw mothers Kim and Holly touch judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara with a unique story of how they were brought together.
“Back in 2007, my son unfortunately passed away and he became an organ donor and his heart went to Kim’s son,” Holly explained to the panel. Kim continued, “My son was 16 days old at the time. He got the heart. We lived thousands of miles apart and had no idea who each other was.”
“The last song I sang to Jake to say goodbye to him was ‘For Good’ from the musical Wicked,” to which Kim added, “And when Beckham was finished with his heart transplant surgery, I wasn’t allowed to hold him, I had to stroke his head. And the first thing I did when I stroked his head, I sang that song for him from Wicked.”
Kim and Holly’s meeting was a long time in the making, the pair revealed. “Several years later, Kim wrote a letter to us and we kept in touch, and then we had the opportunity to meet each other for the first time, and gave me a big hug and it was one of the best moments of my life,” Holly said. Kim summed up the meaning of their audition in a few words: “We would love to spread the word about organ donation — if we could change the heart of one person, it’s worth it.”
Shortly after, the pair launched into Wicked‘s Glinda and Elphaba duet “For Good,” the track that united them across several hundred miles. “Like a comet pulled from orbit/ As it passes a sun/ Like a stream that meets a boulder/ Halfway through the wood/ Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?/ But because I knew you/ I have been changed for good,” the pair harmonized on the chorus.
After they received a standing ovation from all four of the judges and the audience, Mandel asked where Kim’s son was, and Beckham joined the women on stage. “I have never responded well to musical theater. They overdramatize singing,” Mandel then began. “That is the first time in my life that I felt a connection to this kind of music. This was probably the most magical moment I have ever experienced on America’s Got Talent.”
The women received four yeses and advanced to the next round.
Watch Kim and Holly’s touching audition in the video above.
America’s Got Talent judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara and Heidi Klum received a breath of fresh air on Tuesday night (June 27) when South Carolina native Lechuné auditioned.
“Tell me: Why have you waited so long to do something like this, because something obviously has held you back,” Cowell asked the hopeful, who a moment prior revealed she was a voice teacher and student.
“I grew up in a singing family, I spent most of my life observing them do it,” Lechuné told the judges. “I just never pictured myself actually having the moment to be on stage, and so that held me back, but I started teaching because I learned that if I can’t do the thing, try to work close to it, and so that kept the spark alive.”
She continued, “I am here because I am taking my own advice. As a teacher, I’m always sitting on the opposite side of the piano, and you’re always pouring into them and saying, ‘Yay, take the initiative. Don’t get too comfortable. Go for it. Be yourself.’ And after a while, I started getting a little convicted about it because I was like, ‘Am I doing the same thing?’ And so today is about coming out here, taking initiative, and being along with my students.”
After sharing her touching story, the 31-year-old launched into a cover of Coldplay‘s “Yellow” and made the song her own with a full-bodied tone, multiple high notes and well-placed vibrato. “And your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones/ Turn into something beautiful/ And you know, for you, I’d bleed myself dry/ For you, I’d bleed myself dry/ Look how they shine for you/ Look how they shine for you,” she passionately sang on the ending chorus before receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
Following Lachuné’s performance of “Yellow” — the original Coldplay version of the track peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 — she received four yeses from the judges, and moved on to the next round of the competition.
Watch Lechuné’s performance above.
From TikTok to the America’s Got Talent stage. The Sharpe Family Singers — a New Jersey vocal group made up of mom and dad Ron and Barbra and their four kids, Samantha, Logan and twins Connor and Aidan — auditioned for AGT on Tuesday night, urging their 8.5 million TikTok followers and 1.6 million YouTube […]
There are voices, and there’s Roland Abante’s voice.
The fisherman from the Philippines has netted a special gift, which he shared on Tuesday night’s (June 13) edition of America’s Got Talent.
Speaking through an interpreter, Abante explained that he caught fish in the morning, and was a courier and ride-share driver through the rest of the working day. The extent of his stage activity back home is singing karaoke.
Despite the enormous step up that is the AGT stage, Abante backed himself and impressed the heck out of everyone in the room. And judging by the booming number of clicks for performance video on YouTube, he’s making fans everywhere.
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When asked why he chose to compete in this 18th season of AGT, the tears flowed. “This is my big dream, to be here,” he said.
Abante can continue to dream.
Despite an impromptu, on-stage hug from Heidi Klum, and a lengthy pause, Abante held his nerve and let it shine with a full-throated performance of “When a Man Loves a Woman,” written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright and originally recorded by Percy Sledge back in 1966.
Abante has got the blues, and a voice, that earned a standing ovation from all four judges. “I don’t think you could have done it better,” enthused Heidi Klum. “Mic drop. You left it all on the stage, you were amazing, you should be very proud of yourself.”
Sofia Vergara reckons a career change is coming. “I have a feeling you’ll going to have to stop fishing because this is where you need to be.”
After giving two thumbs up, Simon Cowell had a confession. “You were so nervous I genuinely thought for one moment you weren’t going to be able to do this. And then, that happened. And it made me love this audition even more. I really like you. That was a great audition. Really brilliant.”
Cowell copied Klum by giving the contestant a hug. “Everybody heard a life-changing moment,” Howie Mandel said of the performance.
And with that, the judging panel gave four yeses.
Watch below.
A week after America’s Got Talent season five winner Michael Grimm was hospitalized for an unknown illness, his wife has posted an update. Lucie Zolcerva-Grimm took to Instagram on Monday (June 12) to share that Grimm is off the ventilator and “medically, he seems to be pretty stable.” He is, however, struggling with side affects from his […]
Grammy-winning metal band System of a Down is best known for hair-raising hits such as “B.Y.O.B.” and “Aerials,” and now — thanks to America’s Got Talent contestant Phillip Bowen’s stunning violin cover of “Chop Suey!” on the show’s season premiere on Tuesday (May 30) — the world can enjoy an impressive reimagining of one of […]
America’s Got Talent has returned to our screens, and the tears have already begun flowing.The auditions are always a mixed bag. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, you never know what you’re going to get. With the Mzansi Youth Choir’s debut performance on the season 18 opener, we got something special. The choir from South Africa was inspired by the story of the late Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski, a talented singer who shone on the 2021 AGT stage, and blew away judges with her own audition. On that occasion, Marczewski scored a golden buzzer with an original song, “It’s OK.” Following that performance, the singer revealed that she had a 2% chance of survival from cancer that had spread to her lungs, spine and liver. The video garnered millions of views on YouTube and her performance warranted a standing ovation from all four judges.Nightbirde exited AGT weeks later to focus on her health. Her story ended in tragedy, when Marczewski passed away in 2022, aged just 31. She’s gone, but not forgotten. And on Tuesday night (March 30), Mzansi Youth Choir ensured her music would live on, and her legacy would continue, by covering “It’s OK”. Hailing from Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, the choir was formed 20 years ago as a safe space for youngsters to develop and grow.
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Following the TV performance, tears. On stage, at the judging table and in living rooms around the world.
“For anyone who doesn’t know, we lost a very very special person from our AGT family. Her name was Jane. Her nickname was Nightbirde, and she sang this song,” Heidi Klum recapped for the audience. “It was really beautiful. Thank you.”
“That was the perfect AGT audition, remarked Sofia Vergara.
Howie Mandel was moved by what he heard and saw: “I’ll always remember Nightbirde. And to see that it touched people on the other side of the globe, unbelievable. You deserve so much more than a yes. And to be here, you deserve a thank-you.”Judge Simon Cowell wore his emotions for the world to see. “This brought back so many memories for me,” he said, trembling and wiping tears from his face. “I know how much this would have meant to her. Right to the end she was so passionate about sharing her music…you’ve come back here with the most amazing tribute. It was perfect.”The singers wouldn’t be denied. They earned the Golden Buzzer, and with it, a slice of history. Passage through the competition was awarded by the audience, a moment never seen before in AGT.
Watch below.
America’s Got Talent: All-Stars premiered on Monday (Jan. 2) and it has already been a jaw dropper.
Aerialist Alan Silva (Season 15), poet Aneeshwar Kunchala (Britain’s Got Talent 2022), hand-balancing group Bello Sisters (Season 15), a Capella group Berywam (Season 14), singer Caly Bevier (Season 11), singer Jeanick Fournier (Canada’s Got Talent winner 2022), singer Jimmie Herrod (Season 16), dance group Light Balance Kids (Season 14), magician Lioz (Season 10) and ventriloquist Terry Fator (Season 2 winner) all took the stage for the first episode, bringing the heat to the competition.
However, Fator — one of the most successful contestants in AGT history — was sent home. After winning the competition in 2007, the then-42-year-old signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Mirage in Las Vegas and regularly made Forbes’s annual list of highest-paid comedians.
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“I’m going to let in on a little secret,” Cowell told the champion during the episode. “When we decided to make All-Stars, we had one condition: We’re only going to do it if you competed. Seriously! Because if you’re going to say we’ve got the ‘best of the best,’ then you’ve got to get the best of the best.”
Bevier, Berywam, Fournier, Herrod, Kenchala, Silva and Lioz also went home during the premiere episode. On the other hand, Light Balance Kids snagged the Golden Buzzer from judge Howie Mandel, sending them straight to the finale. The Bello Sisters also made it to the finale thanks to winning the super fan vote.
America’s Got Talent: All-Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.