Best of 'America's Got Talent' Season 14: From Kodi Lee's heart-warming performance to Bir Khalsa's heart-stopping one
After five weeks of auditions, and four weeks of judge cuts, 'America's Got Talent' finally moved on to its live shows on August 13.
It was the first of the three live quarterfinal rounds we will get to see. Starting this week, judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Julianne Hough, and Gabrielle Union will lose their power on deciding which act stays in the competition and which gets eliminated, as the decision is left to the fan and viewer votes.
This week we saw 12 acts take the stage and perform live for the first time. But out of the 12, only seven will be move on to the semifinals and will still be in the competition for the one $ one million prize.
Among the 12 acts that performed, three contestants received the Golden Buzzer. Kodie Lee and Luke Islam won the Golden Buzzer during the auditions and Sophie Pecora won her Golden Buzzer from Brad Paisley during the Judge Cuts. This week, joining in one among the 12 acts was none other than the wild card entry, Ansley Burns.
Burns got eliminated during the judge cuts, but after the fans took to social media to reveal their disappointment on Burns not making it through, she landed the coveted first wildcard slot for this season. It is not going to be an easy feat to speculate who might be the seven contestants who move on to the next round. Every single act that performed had its own uniqueness.
But amongst them all, there were three acts that stood out the most and have the highest chance of making it all the way to the semi-finals with the highest votes.
Kodi Lee
Kodi Lee has become a known name after his audition performance this season. The 22-year-old blind and autistic, pianist and singer stole hearts during his audition and also won the first Golden Buzzer of this season by Gabrielle Union. His story has inspired many, and back again for his second performance, Lee's rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” never left a dry eye in the room.
The entire audience was chanting his name during the performance and Union got emotional seeing him perform again for the second time. His range, pitch, and depth were nothing less than breathtaking. Lee has the highest chance of moving on to the semi-finals not just because of exceptional talent but also because of his fan base.
Luke Islam
Luke Islam is one of the most deserving Golden Buzzers of this season. His performance of a track from the Broadway musical 'Waitress' left everyone spellbound. He won the last Golden Buzzer during the auditions from Julianne Hough, making it one amongst the most emotional Golden Buzzer this season.
Back again for the second time, he performed his version of "You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen. He hit every single note perfectly, leaving no flaw. Living his dream of performing in front of a massive audience, he had a smile on his face throughout. The judges gave him a standing ovation, and Cowell was the most impressed amongst all the judges. Islam is also one among the front runners this season who has a chance of making it to the semi-finals.
Bir Khalsa
This danger act group all the way from Mumbai, India has shocked everyone including the judges right from their auditions to the judge cuts, and now to the live quarter-finals. And even though one of their team members quit, they found a new team member and continued their act even more dangerous than ever. This week they took their act to a whole new level of danger and used chainsaws and spears. Starting off by going blindfolded, one of them used a chainsaw to cut zucchinis in the mouth of another member.
They went to smash ice from one of the team member's body and finally finished it off by smashed watermelons with a sledgehammer and the final stunt of smashing a watermelon right above another team member's head using a spear. The judges were impressed and shocked by the danger in their act. After their performance, Cowell told them it was “fantastically crazy and fantastically dangerous.”
Apart from these three acts, there were few other acts that stood out like the Messoudi Brothers and Alex Dowis. We will get to see who made it through to the live semi-finals tomorrow when AGT airs with the results only on NBC. Check your local listings for more information.