America’s Got Talent Golden Buzzer Sara James: Polish Teen Singer is a Star
On episode 3 of the America’s Got Talent auditions, the show continued to stay strong with established and worldly talent featured amid raw talent (Read our Recap). Over the years, AGT has become more of a showcase and launching pad rather than just a discovery show. One of those established acts who auditioned this week was an amazingly talented singer who has already successfully competed in a few competitions. That was 13-year-old singer Sara James from a town of 3,000 people in Poland.
Sara won The Voice Kids Poland
Before I recap Sara’s stunning audition, I’d like to note her prior success. She won The Voice Kids Poland in 2021 (Watch). She has 240K followers on Instagram as well as 456.6K followers on Tik Tok. Additionally, she represented Poland in Junior Eurovision in 2021 (Watch). She placed an impressive 2nd next out of 19 countries. Her song from Junior Eurovision, “Somebody” (Watch) has nearly 7 million streams on Spotify. The music video has 7 million views and the live performance has 2.1 million views.
Sara is truly the next big thing in Poland, and if she goes far on AGT, this could be a launching pad to have a more worldwide career. If it was the talent scouts on AGT’s job to bring in very impressive established acts, they deserve a raise because they are bringing in true ringers.
The judges are stunned that Sara is only 13
In the preview package, host Terry Crews chats with Sara and her mom about traveling from their small Polish town to big city Los Angeles. The experience is somewhat shocking for them. Sara said that watching the videos of AGT growing up “amazed” her and that “in America, dreams come true,” which is why she decided to audition for the show. The judges are stunned that she is only 13. Sara chooses Billie Eilish and Khalid’s “Lovely” for her audition, due to the song’s emotional nature.
Sara appears nervous as the judges note, but when she sings, her voice is artistic possessing a pop star recording quality. Her tone is crystal clear, and her ability to hit low notes is impressive. At times, she reminds me of Season 15 finalist Daneliya Tuleshova from a few years back, but her ability to connect with the lyrics and truly emote is even stronger than Daneliya.
Simon picks Sara as his Golden Buzzer: “You have a glow about you”
Judges Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, and Heidi Klum give the young singer a standing ovation, while Simon Cowell remains seated. Terry shouts, “that was incredible.” Simon says calls it a “moment” that stands out amongst the singers over the years. Simon adds that it “wasn’t perfect,” but that the singer has “a real star glow about you.”
It is Sara’s first time in America. Simon shares that when he came to America from the UK 20 or so years ago for the first time, was a moment he won’t forget. “This is a moment for you to remember forever,” Simon declares before hitting the Golden Buzzer. She is in awe as past winner Grace Vanderwaal’s cover of “I Can See Clearly Now” plays in the background. Sara celebrates the moment with her mom who accompanied her to her audition.
It is only episode 3 out of 10 audition episodes, but I feel fairly confident that Sara will be the best or at least 2nd best singer of the season. Much like Brooke Simpson last season was in a league of her own, Sara is so far in a league of her own even amongst a few other very strong singing talents. This audition will be very tough to top by other vocalists. Sara nabbing that Golden Buzzer without even a major back story speaks to her talent.
Overall, night 3 started really strong, but weakened somewhat by the second hour. My favorites along with Sara were the impressionist singing duo The Brown Brothers and puppet ventriloquist Jack Williams. An honorable mention goes to Australian dancer Max Ostler. Several of the other acts showed potential tonight, but it was these 4 acts that stood above the rest and have the tools to go far.
