Kenan Thompson had heard enough to reach for the golden buzzer. A 14-year-old singer had finished “Your Song,” and the other judges were already praising a voice they could barely reconcile with her age. Thompson offered a shorter verdict: “I hope y’all ready for some more confetti.” Gold filled the stage, and the young singer’s next stop was the finals.
That decision gave America’s Got Talent’s third quarterfinal a clear standard to chase. Earlier singers had earned praise for their voices while facing questions about their choices. A dog-and-acrobat team had won over even the most demanding judge. Still ahead were an auditorium-wide card trick, sword swallowing, aerial work and a comedian whose results-night reaction would be far less guarded than his stage persona.
A great voice still has to take a risk
Elsie performed “The House of the Rising Sun” in a ruffled red dress, with glowing autumn woods behind her. Sofia Vergara praised her for making the familiar song sound different and called her voice “one of the best voices this season.” Howie Mandel heard a performer holding something back.
He referred to the emotional “shield” he had noticed when Elsie first appeared, then contrasted this performance with what she had done at Simon’s house. “I don’t know if it’s a pressure of this live show, but I think that shield is back up again,” he said. Mel B also wanted Elsie to push further. “You could sing that song with your eyes closed,” she told her.
Elsie’s answer to host Terry Crews gave the exchange a more personal weight. Four years earlier, she said, she had suffered from postpartum depression. Her family helped her through it and encouraged her to come to the show. She thanked them for supporting her, then sent her love to Stella and Benjie. Whatever the judges thought of the song choice, she had her own reasons for being on that stage.
Isaac Atkins faced a similar split after “Way Down We Go.” Under blue spotlights, he reached toward the camera and sang in the low register that prompted Mandel to compare his speaking voice to Barry White’s. Mel B loved the grit. Vergara praised his energy and confidence, particularly given how little experience he had on a stage like this.
Mandel and Thompson wanted to hear more range. Thompson called Atkins a gifted singer but said this was a “wow factor kinda show.” Audience members booed the criticism, and he answered with a joke: “Boo constructive criticism.” Atkins used his closing remarks to thank his fellow soldiers and friends in Hawaii and back home, saying they had given him “the fire to keep going.”
The dogs set a standard, then a singer clears it
The Acro Canine Crew gave the judges fewer grounds for disagreement. A small dog leaped across the arched backs of young acrobats holding backbends. Another, dressed as a lifeguard, climbed a wooden lifeguard tower. The human performers had to keep their tumbling and dancing in step with animals moving through the same routine.
Vergara saw a clear improvement from the audition. She praised the performers for looking as though they were enjoying themselves while keeping up with the action. Thompson singled out the choreography. Mel B reminded Crews that the group was his golden buzzer act, then applauded how much they had fitted into the performance without missing a beat.
“So far, the best act tonight.”
That was Mandel’s judgment. He listed the reasons: multiple dogs, tumbling, acrobatics, dancing and enough energy to keep the audience smiling. When Crews asked whether the people or the dogs were in charge, the answer came back, “Probably the dogs.”
The 14-year-old singer’s “Your Song” offered a different kind of appeal. Afterward, Mel B asked her age again, then said her starting point was “pure perfection.” Vergara recalled wanting to give her a golden buzzer before Simon got there first. Mandel noted the distance between her speaking and singing voices.
Thompson turned those compliments into an outcome. After the confetti, he explained that he had been waiting all night for someone to deliver the quality he wanted. “She’s dynamically gifted,” he said. Crews announced that she was going straight to the finals. For the other contestants, the route ahead still depended on the results.
A card trick expands to fill the room
The magician who followed made Thompson part of the performance. He began by describing a premonition, then asked the guest judge to mix cards across a green tabletop. The other judges and audience members had decks of their own and followed instructions to cut, shuffle and combine face-up and face-down cards.
Much of the pleasure came from the conversation around those instructions. Mel B teased Mandel about his shuffling. The magician encouraged Vergara as she worked through the steps, then warned her against peeking. Each participant had to hold a selected card against their chest without looking at it.
Thompson revealed the eight of clubs. The magician showed the same card. Then Vergara, Mel B and Mandel turned theirs toward the cameras: three more eights of clubs. The judges stared and gasped while holding the evidence in their hands.
The magician extended the reveal to the audience, then drew attention to cards in the first three rows that appeared to be wrong. He proposed another test: those cards would match the order of the deck Thompson had mixed. Thompson began dealing. An ace of hearts matched, followed by a seven of diamonds, and the magician kept calling cards. He had turned an apparent mismatch into another stage of the trick, with Thompson doing the checking in public.
Fire, glass and a much quieter stage
Other performers worked on a scale that no tabletop could contain. A singer with a neon-pink beard played a red piano in a cowboy hat; jets of fire erupted behind the band as the performance built. Herwan Legaillard swallowed a long sword under red lighting. Later, fireworks burst from a suspended apparatus while a performer hung upside down.
Maria’s contortion routine began with an image that demanded a closer look: a young performer descending from the ceiling folded inside a tiny transparent cube. She later arched backward and moved through three flaming metal hoops. In another act, an aerialist held his partner aloft using only his legs from a hanging rope. The duo spun high above the stage against a cosmic backdrop.
Guy Kelton Jones took a less crowded approach, reciting poetry barefoot in an all-white outfit. Daniel Alvarez worked from a wheelchair, using a pretend struggle to stand as a practical joke before laughing it off. Against the flames and suspended bodies elsewhere in the show, both performers put more of the audience’s attention on their words and timing.
The vote gives three acts their next step
The results supplied a different kind of release from the golden buzzer. Kameron Marshall bowed and celebrated when his name was called for the semifinals. The Acro Canine Crew’s acrobats jumped and embraced. The act Mandel had ranked highest at that point in the performances had earned another appearance.
Alvarez’s response was quieter and more exposed. He clutched his cap and wiped away tears after learning he would advance. Earlier, he had controlled the room through a joke about getting out of his wheelchair. Now he took a moment to absorb the news in front of the audience.
Those advancing acts will have to prepare another performance, while the golden buzzer singer can look toward the finals. Watch the video for the full songs, the card trick’s successive reveals and the pauses before the results, when the performers are still waiting to learn whether they will return.