The Birmingham Youth Choir brought a lot of joy to the America’s Got Talent stage for its first appearance, so much so that it won Simon Cowell’s coveted Golden Buzzer. The choir’s director Ahkeem Lee was especially moved to receive the tribute from Simon because he had watched American Idol back in its heyday.
“I’ll be 29 in September, and I grew up watching American Idol,” he exclusively tells Parade. “Simon back then was really hardcore. He did not play, so if you got a yes from him it was like, okay, you must be a pretty incredible act to get a yes from Simon. He’s softened up over the years, but for some of us older choir members, we remember the Simon of the American Idol days and his style of judging. So that stuck in our minds even in this process.”
That said, going into the audition, a performance of “Joy,” Ahkeem was pretty confident that his choir would get four yeses, but he didn’t know if any of the judges still had a Golden Buzzer remaining…