America’s Got Talent: Celine Tam gets Laverne Cox Golden Buzzer
Typically this season, the show has made us wait until around the halfway point in the show in order for us to see who the Golden Buzzer choice is. That happened again tonight, and we have to admit that the moment that Celine Tam walked on the stage, she was going to be getting it. That seems to be the trend these days, and it’s difficult to reconcile as a writer and a viewer of the show.
We don’t fault a single Golden Buzzer this season on the basis of talent — all of them have been great! Yet, one of the biggest focuses of this show over the years has been variety, and bringing a wide array of different talents out there. If you get all singers, then over time things start to get a little routine. You wonder if the other sorts of acts are getting enough attention. We’ve had eight golden buzzers on the show so far, and of this group, seven of them have been singers in some shape or form. In breaking that down further, the vast majority of these singers have been kids. We get it somewhat in that it’s exciting for people to see kids get so happy at the thought of their dreams coming true. (Tyra Banks is the only person to push the Golden Buzzer for someone not a singer in dance group Light Balance.)
Now, let’s get to everything that Celine did well: Great singing, great stage presence, and a very good rapport with the judges. She’s immensely talented and she’s performed all over the world for a reason. She does these huge ballads, and that suggests to us that she could get signed by a record label or some sort of David Foster sort of mentor without too much of a problem.
As we’re trying to emphasize here, our frustrations with the show have nothing to do with Celine and more to do with the patterns on the show.
Will she go far in the live shows? Probably, or at least past the first round. The big concern that she faces is admittedly not something that is her fault. You just have to wonder if there is any sort of backlash that the singers are going to get because of how they are all getting the big moments this season.
What did you think about Laverne’s Golden Buzzer choice on America’s Got Talent tonight? Sound off now in the comments below!
Also, head over to the link here in the event you want some other news on the show, including our FULL review of everyone who performed on the show tonight. (Photo: NBC.)