Utah’s own One Voice Children’s Choir, who famously performed Let It Go, together with Alex Boye, in the past, made it through the NBC auditions for hit TV show “America’s Got Talent”, this past Sunday. The auditions were held in order to select participants for the show’s upcoming season. The Utah children’s choir signed on for and took part in the show’s fifth week of auditions, in the run-up for a series scheduled to begin later this year. You can watch the entire episode on the NBC website.
The One Voice Children’s Choir from Utah comprises 100 kids, aged 4 to 17 and their most famous member, without a doubt, is YouTube runaway star Lexi Walker. Walker was one of the three members of the choir who performed solo moments. Hers occurred during the group’s performance of Burn, a hit song originally recorded by star performer Ellie Goulding.
Now, if you’re from Utah, are a music fan, and have been on YouTube in the past couple of weeks, then you probably know who Lexi Walker is. In case you don’t, then head on down to her YouTube channel stat! Lexi has been making waves for a few months now, ever since her rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow went viral online. The then 11 year-old performer has since released a slew of videos showcasing her musical prowess, including the hit song Let It Go, from the Disney feature film “Frozen”.
Back to the auditions on Sunday: the children’s choir was met with relatively unanimous praise, most notably from acerbic critic and radio personality Howard Stern. Stern reminded audiences that the point of musical auditions for “America’s Got Talent” is to identify performers who can give the audience “moments”, chills, “or the hair on their arm goes up”. According to Stern, contenders who can provide one such moment are “pretty good”, since they meet a minimal requirement for being accepted on the show. One Voice, on the other hand, had not one, but “about 50 of those moments”.
Stern’s opinion was shared by supermodel Heidi Klum, who confessed she was impressed. “Wow. I love the passion that you have”, Klum said. She added that she really enjoyed the kids’ performance. Former Spice Girl and fellow judge Mel B said she was not that impressed with the first half of the kids’ audition. However, she added that the ad-lib section of their performance was incomparably better: “you all of a sudden got in tune and you got together and you got connected”. Howie Mandel was less impressed and voted against the kids. Stern then begged Mel B, who was to grant the deciding vote, to let the kids perform: “America is going to love these people. I’m begging you. Give them a chance. Just give them a shot. They are good.”