Photo by: NBCUniversal
America’s Got Talent has crowned its third Golden Buzzer winner of the season: Tyler Butler-Figueroa. The Violinist wowed the judges and got Simon Cowell to hit the Golden Buzzer and send him on to the finals.
Tyler has a cancer diagnosis, but he said that he took up violin to give himself an identity outside of his health concerns. Cowell was inspired by his story and sent him on through.
The season premiere saw autistic pianist Kodi Lee wow the judges, and episode two saw an entirely different Golden Buzzer performance in the guise of singer and songwriter Joseph Allen. The latter snagged the Golden Buzzer from judge Howie Mandel.
Kodi Lee & Joseph Allen Have Been the Previous Golden Buzzer Winners
Host Terry Crews then came out from the wings and lifted Allen into the air as he celebrated. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Allen revealed that he jokingly made the deal that Crews would lift him up if he got the Golden Buzzer. “I think that’s why I asked him, because I had imagined it. I’d imagined how cool it would be for that to happen and then I guess I just asked myself, ‘What would I want to happen if I got the golden buzzer?’ And I was like, ‘Man, how cool would it be if Terry Crews came out and picked me up?’,” he recalled.
“So then when I got the golden buzzer, I was like, ‘No way. The perfect scenario right now would be for Terry Crews to pick me up.’ And he stayed true to his promise and he came out and did it,” Allen continued. “It was just definitely a literal dream come true.”
Allen Said That Winning the Golden Buzzer Was a ‘Literal Dream Come True’
Allen also spoke on the pressure of having deliver a show-stopping performance each time out, and says that he will be sure to stay grounded throughout the season. “It feels good. Of course everything comes with its pros and cons, so the cons are you have to deal with the pressure of understanding now you have even more people that you wanna make proud,” he admitted.
“You definitely want to make sure that you continuously move in a direction that you can learn and grow and become the ideal version of yourself that you see in your head,” the youngster added. “It comes with its pressures, but I cannot lie to you and say that the pressures outweigh the joy that comes from being able to say you’re guaranteed at the live shows. It’s a tremendous opportunity, and I’m lucky that I’m in the position that I’m in right now to be able to do that.”