(Fwrd Axis) — America’s Got Talent returned for its 17th season on Tuesday night, featuring dancers, singers, and one truly special golden buzzer act that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.
In case you missed it, here is a recap of the best and worst acts of the night:
The Best
Avery Dixon
As the old saying goes, “they saved the best for last”. 21-year-old saxophone player Avery Dixon was the final act of the premiere. He admitted to the judges he nearly committed suicide because of bullying due to being born premature, weighing just 1 pound 8 ounces. However, he found strength through music and that was evident in his performance and the judges were blown away.
“When you play with your instrument, you play with your heart, and we feel it,” Heidi Klum told him.
Host Terry Crews felt the same, rushing from backstage down to the judges’ desk. It was obvious what was coming next.
“You touched the heart of every human being in this building right now,” Crews told an emotional Dixon. “You’ve been bullied all your life, but you tell every bully that you have a big brother named Terry Crews who has your back, and all those bullies are going to have to watch you succeed, my friend,” he said as the hit the golden buzzer, sending Dixon straight into the live shows.
Celia Munoz
The early release this week gave us a look at this audition before the premiere. Celia Munoz flew all the way from Spain to audition for AGT and boy, did it pay off. The ventriloquist did not need a puppet for this as she sang “Once Upon a Time” while flossing, drinking a glass of water, and taking a phone call. It was pretty cool!
“It was refreshing not having some weird puppet come out of a box,” Klum said.
Mervant Vera
The other early release saw the 33-year-old magician put a cool twist on some card magic. Now anyone who knows me will know I’m not the biggest lover of card magic ever since Shin Lim won America’s Got Talent Season 13 because he set the bar so high.
However, Mervant’s cool spin saw him spitting some rhymes while pulling out the correct card. I found myself bopping my head to the song just as much as Terry was.
“You could put that on the radio right now!” Crews said.
The Worst
Ben Lapidus
This was easily the cheesiest audition of the night and I mean that literally. What this writer was hoping would be a promising audition turned into a song about being embarrassed to want more parmesan at restaurants. Seriously. All the judges gave him the red X but Heidi, Sofia, and Simon took theirs away, sending him into the next round.
And for the record, I love parmesan cheese.
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC.
