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America's Got Talent: All-Stars: Kodi Lee advances straight to finals after winning superfans vote

Feb. 7, 2023
America's Got Talent: All-Stars: Kodi Lee advances straight to finals after winning superfans vote

Kodi Lee, a blind and autistic musical savant, was voted straight to the finals by show superfans on Monday's episode of America's Got Talent: All-Stars on NBC.

The fan favorite jumped up and down when he learned the news.

'Kodi, you are a real competitor and such a star,' said franchise creator and judge Simon Cowell, 63. 'It was so tough to lose people tonight. However, you so deserve to be at the final.'

The season 14 winner earlier said that being on the show already changed his life. He wore a silver jacket as he was escorted out to the stage to perform. 

The crowd chanted his name as Kodi got pumped up for his performance.

'Now this is an all star!' Simon said.

Howie Mandel, 67, asked him why he wanted to come back to perform on the spin-off series.

'To win again,' Kodi said.

Kodi sat down at the piano and played and sang Calum Scott's song Biblical. When he finished, the audience and judges gave him a standing ovation.

'There is no other word to describe what you do as amazing,' Howie said. 'And you are truly amazing. You are truly an all star. And you, I think just got this entire audience, I think you got the superfans, and you got everybody at home to feel you.'

'Kodi you are one of these artists who are always going to be amazing,' Simon said. 'There will never come a year where you go ''Kodi's not good anymore'' because you're always going to be amazing. You're always going to be better. Your performances are always going to be mesmerizing.'

'Heck, yeah!' Kodi said.

Kodi had a message for the superfans.

'Help me change the world!' Kodi said.

Singer Daneliya Tuleshova, 16, from Kazakhstan, a former finalist, was the first contestant during the two-hour episode. The teenager said she had 1.4 million subscribers to her YouTube channel. She performed the Duncan Laurence song Arcade.

'It would be amazing if one day my name was up in lights,' Daneliya said.

'I thought it was stunning all the way around,' Heidi Klum, 49, said.

'Even though your voice cracked a little bit, I really think that made you more human and better,' Simon said. 'You've got real talent. Love the song choice.'

Magician Eric Chien shared that magic was a great coping mechanism for him growing up when he got bullied. He said after being on AGT he traveled around the world and even performed his magic on Broadway. He asked Heidi to join him on stage. He made a rose petal change into a chain and then disappear. He made pictures and a vase appear on stage.

'I think that act was beautiful,' Howie said. 'You are competing with all stars and I think that you rose to that level tonight.'

'I like big magic and they like little magic,' Simon said. 'I thought it was very cute, but for me it didn't have that wow factor.'

Eric said he still enjoyed close-up magic despite what Simon said and wanted to be true to himself.

The 72-member Voices of Hope Children's Choir, from Orange County, California, all wore tie-dyed shirts as they took the stage. They were determined to wow Howie this time around.

Before they started, Simon turned to the choir director.

'By the way, if he says anything negative, punch him,' Simon said.

The choir belted out the King & Country song Together and danced. Multi-colored streamers rained down from the ceiling when they finished and Howie flinched. Heidi started laughing.

'I got scared,' Howie said. 'Did you get scared?'

'I think what you do is wonderful,' Howie said. 'That being said, on a show called AGT: All-Stars, this doesn't for me personally rise above a really nice school assembly.'

'You know what I am actually going to send you to detention,' Simon said. 'We do have a lot of choirs on the show and some of them are technically brilliant and really boring. And then there's others who aren't quite so polished but make you feel great. And you fall under that category, which is you just made me feel really good.'

AGT season 15 winner Brandon Leake, 30, from Stockton, California, said his biggest dream was to open the door to spoken word. He got emotional during his performance about talking to a homeless person and how it affected him.

Brandon afterward brought his daughter on stage with him.

'You are brilliant,' Simon said. 'Absolutely brilliant.'

'Your words are so poetic, so in the moment,' Howie said. 'We are not only enjoying your performance but the message is so clear.'

Lukas, from Vienna, Austria, and his dancing dog Falco, a border collie, from season 14, took the stage. He said this time he brought Falco's younger brothers Joke and Turner to help out because Falco had gotten older. He said Falco was 13 years old now.

Lukas and Falco danced to the song The Heat Is On. The two also jumped rope together. Lukas brought the other younger dogs out to perform tricks. The crowd gave them a standing ovation.

'I think the superfans are going to like you,' Howie said.

'We have utmost respect for training them because I mean that's not easy,' Heidi said. 'I have two, they don't do anything but eat and poo.'

'I really want to show the world that Falco is a winner,' Lukas said.

Danger act Brett Loudermilk, a former semifinalist from Charlotte, North Carolina, took the stage next. He asked Heidi to join him on stage as his assistant. He shoved an entire long balloon and a giant marker into his mouth. Simon hit his buzzer.

'You are hilarious and you made me laugh,' Heidi said.

'It was like being at a very weird children's party,' Simon said.

Hip-hop freestyle rapper Flaujae, 18, from Savannah, Georgia, who previously competed on AGT when she was only 14, was the next to perform. She said she felt a connection to her father who was a rapper but was murdered. Besides singing, she was also now a competitive basketball player. She performed her own original music.

'You are a beast to be reckoned with,' Howie said.

'I think it's amazing what you do,' Heidi said.

Denver comedian Josh Blue, 43, who has cerebral palsy and competed on season 16, said he wanted to come back to the scene of the crime 'because I was robbed.'

'Making people laugh is my life,' Josh said.

He had all the judges laughing and they gave him a standing ovation when he was done.

'The audience reaction says it all,' Simon said. 'If you are laughing, you are great and you're great.'

'You gave us what we needed more than anything else,' Howie said.

Comedian Sethward, from Canyon, Texas, was the final performance of the episode. He wore a goat costume. He tumbled off the stage and Simon asked who invited him on the show. He ate one of Simon's tangerines and then started screaming. Simon got up and pushed all the judges buzzers.

Comedian Josh and motivational speaker Brandon made it to the top three before they were eliminated and Kodi advanced.

AGT: All-Stars will return next Monday on NBC.


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