A 13-year-old with a lockdown hobby just made ‘AGT’ judges fall in love with her singing dog
Ana Maria Marjan, a 13-year-old, appeared on 'AGT: All-Stars' 2023 to show off her ventriloquism skills. Marjan wowed the judges when she revealed that she had won ‘Romania’s Got Talent’ season 11. Marjan is not your regular ventriloquist, and she proved it just right when she began singing ‘You Don’t Own Me,’ by Lesley Gore, in her perfectly pitched voice. Her act left the judges in awe. Howie Mandel couldn’t help but scream out loud, “WOW!”
Followed by Heidi Klum, who said, “I mean, no wonder you won. I mean, you are incredible. You are gorgeous; you can sing so beautifully. I love your furry friend.” She further added, “It was funny too. I love all the banter and the jokes.” Mandel added, “I was laughing! And I cannot believe the story that you just started doing this during lockdown.” He continued, “Like, this is you don’t even have two years under your belt.” Clearly, he wasn’t done yet and told Marjan, “That is amazing. And how did you get the puppet?”
Intriguingly, he asked, “Did your parents buy it for you?” Marjan promptly replied, “My mom made it for me.” All the judges were shocked to hear this; Simon Cowell even asked, “Is that not a real dog?” He later told the 13-year-old, “You are so competitive, and for me, I love seeing someone who’s from another country come to America to compete again. It's exciting when you see the best of the best compete.”
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Fans also couldn’t stop raving about her performance. One viewer wrote in the YouTube comments section, “I still find it incredible how she has such a distinct accent while speaking, a different accent and voice for her puppet, and when singing in English, no accent at all. And her ventriloquist skills are amazing. Her ability to change back and forth with zero signs of her lips moving. Fantastic! PS. Her mother is extremely talented, too. The dog looks like he came from a manufacturer. PSS. Love Ana-Maria's hair.” Another wrote, “Let’s not forget that she did her performance in English, which is not her native language. She was just amazing.” And the third chimed in, “Bravo, Ana, you make Romania proud. We are so happy you came to AGT so everyone can see your talent...” While the fourth wrote, "She is formidable! Another Romanian competitor who's raising the bar of this beautiful AGT show."
Per Deseret, Marjan shared that her journey of ventriloquism started after she saw a video of Terry Fator during COVID. Fator was the winner of ‘America’s Got Talent’ season 2, from whom she was so inspired that she decided to try ventriloquism, and when she got her first puppet on her 11th birthday, she started practicing right away. Marjan, who competed with 60 other top contestants in All-Stars, was moved to the finale. Speaking of which, the young ventriloquist told the outlet, “I got to compete with the person I admire most, and I just want to make him proud.”
