America’s Got Talent video: Ansley Burns takes on Aretha Franklin
What’s interesting is that Ansley has already had one viral moment over the past couple of years — previously a backseat car performance of her doing Carrie Underwood’s “Cry Pretty” got a ton of attention on Facebook, and led to Carrie herself acknowledging her voice on social media. The funny thing of course is that Carrie became a star on American Idol, which was judged by Simon Cowell … who is of course now on AGT.
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So what’s Ansley doing on AGT now? She’s out to prove herself in a little more of a competitive environment, even though she’s only 12 years old. She’s clearly bold, given that she was willing to do a cover of Aretha Franklin in front of the judges. Not only that, but she was willing to actually do it twice — once with the backing track included, and then once with it dropped out completely. Simon clearly wasn’t a fan of it after he heard it in the first arrangement.
This is where we talk about how Simon often knows what he’s doing even when it is so easy to criticize him. We’re talking here about someone who really just knows music backwards and forwards, and often has a keen understanding of how to make some people shine. With Ansley, he figured out that the loudness of the track was drowning her out a little bit, and he determined with this that the best way in which to help her voice shine. He was right. The moment that some of the backing track went away, we were actually able to hear more of the purity of her voice and figure out more precisely what she was capable of. She’s got a really good sound and it feels like she is going to be the sort of person who does really well on this season.
What’s also going for her is that she seems like the sort of contestant most of America is going to get behind. She’s someone who doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of experience on big talent shows and there’s still a rawness to her as a performer. She feeds off of the energy of the crowd and we could foresee her being the sort of person who makes the semifinals on the basis of both talent and likability.
Want to get another sneak peek for this upcoming America’s Got Talent episode?
Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! Meanwhile, let us know in the comments precisely what you think about Ansley as a performer, and if she lives up to some of the hype. (Photo: NBC.)