America’s Got Talent 2025: The Benn Family Band lost everything in the Eaton Fire, now they honor Altadena
America’s Got Talent week 5 auditions which aired on Monday, June 25th, featured a lot of talent and even more impactful stories, including the Benn Family Band, which closed the episode.
Backstage, fans learn that the family consists of seven siblings. However, the group performing on the AGT stage features three of the sisters, a brother, and the mom. Dad cheers them on in the crowd.
The family hails from Altadena, California, a neighboring city situated in the hills behind Pasadena. They tell the judges that they, like many others, lost their home as well as their city due to the fires in January. Everything they owned was gone in the matter of hours. One of the members shared, “We come from a very big and beautiful family, a lineage of people that live in Altadena, and our legacy was the homes that we owned, and that beautiful community, the loss of that, is something that we are having a hard time getting over.” They want to showcase their city and what their community truly is. The mom stated, “This is a salute to Altadena”.
The Pasadena theater where AGT is taped served as a shelter to homeless fire victims
America’s Got Talent auditions, initially scheduled to happen at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 12th, were postponed until March 14th due to the fires. Initially, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium was used as a shelter to house 1500 people, but when that number shrunk significantly, those it was housing were moved to a shelter in Duarte.
The group sang “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle which fit nicely with the theme they shared about. Each singer is a strong vocalist, but the singer in the middle of the group stands out with a remarkable voice that has great power and a unique tone. Her two sisters also brought excellent harmonies. The song started softly with a few solos, and then built employing beautiful harmonies. It had an almost choir-like quality in the best way possible. It ended with lovely soaring notes. A beautiful performance. Quite possibly, my favorite vocal of the season so far.
Simon Cowell calls the performance “brave and important”
Howie Mandel said, “The choice of song, the emotion that it was delivered in, is one of the most beautiful, heartfelt, incredibly emotional messages I think we have heard on this season”. Simon Cowell called it “brave and important.” He recalled hearing about the fires and remarked on the importance of putting a spotlight on the regular people who lost homes, jobs, and businesses, rather than the celebrities losing so much from the fires. Sofia Vergara added, “I cannot even understand what you guys went through” before calling it “amazing.” Mel B was at a loss for words before asking, “Can I just say, yes?” They group received resounding yeses from all of the judges.
The Benn Family were a true standout, and in my mind actually worthy of a Golden Buzzer. The other act of the night that did receive a Golden Buzzer from Sofia Vergara was Britain’s Got Talent alums and thrilling roller-skating acrobatics, Duo Stardust. Other standouts included Chuck Adams who gave a pleasing cover of “Iris.” Even though Mel B didn’t love it, I found potential in magician Alain Simonov’s act. It’s shaping up to be a competitive season from top to bottom.
