The “America’s Got Talent” judges were shocked by young guitarist.
Things on Tuesday’s America’s Got Talent were not what they seemed, when a seemingly demure young girl, Maya Neelakantan, broke out into an instrumental version of Papa Roach’s banger “Last Resort” in what she explained was her first time on stage.
“You know what I love about this audition,” judge Simon Cowell said, “you just weren’t expecting this. You were so shy, and you’re 10! And then you turned into, like, this rock goddess.”
Indeed, Maya, who said she was from India, began playing a more traditional song slowly, then she cranked it up, grinning and moving to the beat, like a rock ‘n’ roll veteran. Watch her audition in the video below.
Cowell also said that he was about the contestant’s age when he tried — and failed to learn the guitar.
“It is one of the most difficult instruments in the world, so I gave up,” Cowell said. “Actually, no, my teacher gave up on me.”
Judge Howie Mandel approved too: “I think you just picked yourself up a viral moment.”
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Simon Cowell and Maya Neelakantan on “America’s Got Talent.”
Sitting next to him, Heidi Klum called Maya “gutsy.”
“I think you are absolutely incredible,” Klum added.
Sofia Vergara gave her the first of four yeses.
Elsewhere on the show, as always, there some interesting acts, including a man from Belgium who claimed that his “emotional support” chicken had psychic powers. He managed to successfully perform a sort of magic show and managed to snag a yes from each of the judges.
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Twin brothers also asked everyone to leave the AGT studio so that they could set up 10,000 dominoes and then topple them one by one. They spent 13 hours or so preparing for it, and they left with four yeses, although Klum wasn’t that into their act at first. She left it to the audience, and they were all for the contestants.
A group of Australian dancers left Vergara in awe — “That was for sure the coolest thing I’ve seen today” — and Mandel astonished. He slammed the Golden Buzzer, which means that the act will go straight to the next round, regardless of what the others think.
