Twenty-year-old singer Alex Sampson brings retro vibes to the America’s Got Talent 2024 stage
America’s Got Talent returns for it’s Auditions Six episode on Tuesday (July 9) and here is a sneak peek of singer-songwriter Alex Sampson.
The 20-year-old flew from Atikokan, Ontario, Canada to sing his original song, “Pretty Baby” for the judges, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Simon Cowell.
Alex confessed that his hometown is small, stating that there are probably more people sitting in the auditorium than live in his hometown. He only occasionally plays gigs. However, he has 3.6 million followers on Tik Tok and 989K followers on Instagram according to Blake Busch’s research.
His 2020 song “Play Pretend” has over 17 million Spotify streams. And his sing-along videos have gone the most viral, including one of himself singing along to Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” which garnered 3.2 million likes and 23 million views on Tik Tok.
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Alex sang along to a track without playing an instrument. His style is decidedly pop. The song has a 50s/60s retro vibe in the chorus. He’s like an old fashioned heart throb. The audience began singing along with him. Girls in the audience were fake crying!
Sofia called the song “beautiful” adding, “There’s something about you, your presence…it didn’t feel like you were nervous when you started singing.” Alex confessed that his legs were shaking from nerves.
However, Heidi did notice his nerves, but felt that “it makes you more real in a way.” She added, “We can hear that you can sing, so it didn’t bother me. I also love the vibe, and I am here for it.”
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Howie compares Alex to Peter Noone of the 60s British Invasion band, Herman’s Hermits
Howie, who usually frowns upon singers performing original songs said, “It took me a minute to adjust because you are a young guy. Your voice reminded me of the lead singer from Herman’s Hermits.” WHAT? While his vibe is throwback, Alex does NOT sound like Peter Noone. Ha. His vocal phrasing and tone sounds very modern. And of course, Alex has never heard of Herman’s Hermits–a popular British Invasion band who had a string of hits in the 1960s. Lead singer Peter Noone was only a teenager at the time.
Nevertheless, Howie loved the retro sound because, “Nobody is doing that now.”
Simon noted that the song could have been written in the 50s or the 60s, which he thought was “really smart.” He added, “It’s the kind of song you were hear in a Martin Scorsese movie.” (He must be thinking of Goodfellas, a mob movie set in the 60s and 70s). Simon called the song and performance “very authentic” and “very different.” He said, “If this is the lane you want to go down, I think it’s very smart, because you seperate yourself from what everybody else is doing.
Alex received four yeses, which means he has the opportunity to make the live shows, which begin in August. America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays on NBC at 8 pm, streaming next day on Peacock.
