Tonight on NBC America’s Got Talent begins with an all-new Tuesday, September 12, 2023, episode and we have your America’s Got Talent recap below! On tonight’s AGT season 18 episode 18 “Qualifiers 4″, as per the NBC synopsis, “Eleven performers take the stage live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium as judging is turned over to the American audience to vote for their favorite performer to move to the final round.”
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In tonight’s America’s Got Talent episode, it was Round Four of the Qualifiers! Up first was Zion Clark. Zion was a naturally born fighter. He grew up without a family and as a special needs child in the foster care system. He has had to fight for everything he has in life.
He said people only know his name now because he learned to advocate for himself. He showed off muscular skill as well as musical talent tonight. He was a force of positivity. He put that skill on display and he won an incredible amount of support from the audience. And that included the judges.
The performances were supposed to get better each step of the way. Zion did that. His personal motto was “no excuses” and he showed that he was capable of doing everything he sets his mind to. He really blew people away with his acrobatic moves. The judges all sang his praises tonight.
They urged the audience to vote for Zion while they had the chance. He also became the one to beat tonight. Next up Puppet Simon and the Cowbells. They were a puppet act. They included singing on top of humor. It also didn’t hurt that the only one they mocked throughout all of this was Simon.
Simon was considered the leading figure on judging musical acts. He’s worked in the industry for years. He was the leading face on “American Idol” for years. He practically formed One Direction. Everyone loved the idea of poking fun at him. He was just the one man that didn’t like it.
He pressed his reject button during the act. He was also followed by Sofia in doing so because the puppet act brought out a Sofia puppet that she didn’t like. It hadn’t mattered that the group sounded great. Or that the puppets were funny.
Some people just couldn’t take a joke. Sofia also tried to later walk back her actions. She tried to claim she pressed the button by accident and so then it became a joke that Simon pressed it for her.
Simon had nothing good to say about this act. He panned them all across the board. He said it wasn’t original or funny. He hated their singing. He was sticking by his rejection and it was going to be up to the voters to determine what will happen next. The show quickly moved onto Roland Abante. He was another singing act.
With the exception being that everyone acknowledges that Roland was genuinely talented. His audition was one of the most watched scenes in AGT history. It had over seventy-five million views in the Philippines alone. Tonight was better. He chose the song “I Will Always Love You” to perform tonight.
He sang it in a husky voice that was all his. No Dolly Parton rendition. No Whitney Houston rendition. He sang the song like it was his. He would later receive a standing ovation from the whole crowd. He even got one from Simon who said he loved the performance.
Simon went on to add he couldn’t not love the performance. It was flawless to him. Sofia said the same and she praised him from coming from a karaoke background. Heidi only had good things to say as well. Howie was even blown away by this performance. They said it was finale worthy.
They added that if there was a button in which they could send him directly to the finale then they would have pushed it after this incredible performance. It was kind of a hard act to follow. And Mariandrea still tried to do it.
Mariandrea’s performance tonight fell on her fifteenth birthday. She was so happy to be performing. It was her dream to one day dance professionally and she was one step closer to that after tonight. She was a cute little girl that was great at putting together these sometimes scary performances.
It was engaging. It was weird. It was also sad because she didn’t win over everyone with it. Simon wasn’t impressed. He said her first performance was better. The other judges hadn’t agreed with that. They all said she was just as disturbed as before although it should be noted that Howie hadn’t given her a standing ovation like the ladies did.
Next up was Kylie Frey. She was a Country musician. She also showed off some serious songwriting skills. She had impressed Simon with it the last time and since then she has had Reba perform one of her songs. The one person she didn’t impress was Howie. Howie said her music wasn’t catchy enough the last time he saw her perform.
He said it didn’t stick in his head. She was hoping to change his mind about that tonight when she performed only he still took issues with it. Howie said her original song was better tonight. He gave her that if nothing else.
It was the rest of the performance that he didn’t care for. He said she didn’t perform it well. She did a little too much according to him and the music suffered. Simon must have seen the same because his criticism wasn’t that far off from Howie’s. Kylie was too focused on the showmanship that she lost the heart that went into it.
She also didn’t see that or take that criticism well. It seems that some of her newfound star power has gone to her head. She needs to work on that if she’s hoping to win. And then it was onto Chibi Unity before long.
Chibi Unity are a dance group. They did things big. They had high energy and lots of skill. They quickly came to blow everyone away and Simon said it was like watching a really cool commercial. Possibly Nike. The choreography was on point tonight. The judges all enjoyed their performance.
They couldn’t wait to see more from this Japanese group and they urged the audience to vote for them. They wanted to encourage these kids. To see their talent flourish to its full potential. They couldn’t do that if people didn’t vote for them and there was a lot of voting tonight.
Chibi Unity was followed by the Freedom Singers. The Freedom Singers highlight the unhoused community. They said people saw Skid Row as just people living on the streets and they failed to see the full scope of what so many people are living with. The group sang another heartfelt song tonight.
They truly opened the floodgates. Even Simon said this was a massive step up from the audition. He said the vocals were extraordinary. He also highlighted the key voice that opened up their performance tonight.
All of the judges loved the Freedom Singers. They wanted to keep their message alive more than anything else. They were another act that was hard to follow and once again Orlando Leyba found himself in this awkward position. He’s a comic. He auditioned after a group won the Golden Buzzer last time. He now had to follow another incredible act and so he switched things up tonight. He went straight to jokes rather than his former storytelling. Howie would later say that he threw out a million pitches and they were all homeruns.
Orlando was naturally funny. He was funnier than Howie who tried to poke fun at Sofia’s broken marriage. Orlando spoke up for Sofia and Terry had to keep him away from the mike so that no one would hear him. Oh well! Onto the next one. Anna DeGuzman is a magician. She was known for her card tricks. She’s also been contacted by every one of her exes since her audition and so she wanted do it big tonight. She was the first female magician to make it to the live shows. She wanted to impress. And that’s why she decided to include all four of the judges.
The judges all enjoyed themselves. She included them in her many card tricks tonight. They loved seeing it up close because they knew how good it was and they wanted to encourage her to going even further in the competition. Next up was D’Corey Johnson. He was a singer. It was his dream to one day perform on Broadway. He naturally likes going big and the judges had already warned him against that. They told him less is more. His mother has been saying the same thing to Kid. So, he finally listened.
D’Corey performed “Wishing On A Star”. He stripped it down to a soulful performance. He does have an amazing voice and so tonight turned into his own concert. He got a standing ovation from everyone. Yes, everyone! Simon and Howie included. The eleven year old little boy has such elegance and grace that Heidi said it was retro. They loved that he took criticism from last time to turn it around tonight. They also loved that he performed tonight in honor of his sister. His sister has a chronic illness and it was a miracle that she was able to be there tonight to watch him perform.
But the final performance of the night went to Shadow Ace. He was a shadow artist. He put on a dance and musical performance tonight with the shadow art. It was unique. It was funny. The judges sure enjoyed it and there’s a chance it’ll make it to the finals if all goes well.
And that was it for a night full of performances.
THE END!