It isn’t too often that we get to see the America’s Got Talent judges stop someone in their tracks during an audition.
If this happens, typically it is to slam their red buzzer to signify that they don’t want to endorse the act.
Usually, if someone gets the red buzzer, it means the judges want them off the stage ASAP.
However, there are other times when the judges stop a performer so they can give them some feedback. Typically, this judge is always Simon Cowell.
Seeing as Simon is the leader of the pack (he is a producer on the show), his opinion tends to have the most weight.
When Hunter Price stepped on the America’s Got Talent stage, he looked like many singers before him. He had a bit of rugged charm and a little rough around the edges – in a good way.
Hunter started his audition by singing Bryan Adams‘ “(Everything I Do) I Do For You” but he didn’t get too far.
Just after a few seconds of his singing, Simon stopped the 25-year-old, but thankfully Simon didn’t use his red buzzer.
Instead, Simon just asked Hunter to stop for a minute. He told him that he felt the singer was too generic. Ouch! Not exactly what Hunter was probably looking for.
Simon told him:
“I’ve heard that a billion times. I think you have a good voice. What’s missing here? What’s the missing part? Which artist do you look up to at the moment?”
Hunter had a pretty surprising response and told Simon that he’d like to be like Taylor Swift.
Simon told him that Taylor writes her own music, and apparently, so does Hunter! Simon wanted to hear something original from Hunter, rather than hear more of his “karaoke competition.”
It was a good thing that Simon stopped Hunter because by the end of his original song, everyone in the audience (judges included) were cheering for him.
Simon told Hunter:
“Hunter, this was like two different auditions for me. The first one, you won a karaoke competition and you sang a karaoke song. And now you sang this song, great melody, and I like the lyrics. What inspired you over the years?”
And Hunter had a great response! He was happy that he could make people happy in just 120 seconds.
But Simon wanted to push him further. Simon felt that Hunter had an interesting story, he wanted to know what Hunter’s lows and highs were.
Hunter admitted that there have been moments in his life where he didn’t have enough money to scrape together to even get a meal for himself.
After that, the judges had to vote. Surprisingly, Howie felt that even after the second song, Hunter hadn’t opened up enough to the judges and voted “no.”
Thankfully, the other three judges vehemently disagreed with Howie and all of them voted “yes” for Hunter to send him further in the competition.
What did you think of this audition? Do you think that Simon was too hard to stop him in the middle of a song?
What has been your favorite audition this season on America’s Got Talent? Sound off in the comments on Facebook!
America’s Got Talent airs every Tuesday on NBC, directly followed by World of Dance.
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