{"id":50977,"date":"2025-07-09T08:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/50977\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T08:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:56:08","slug":"simon-cowell-stops-agt-audition-asks-granddaughter-to-sing-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/50977\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell Stops ‘AGT’ Audition, Asks Granddaughter to Sing Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn one of the most unexpected moments of America\u2019s Got Talent<\/a> season 20 so far, Simon Cowell stunned the audience \u2014 and the contestant herself \u2014 when he interrupted an audition to invite her granddaughter on stage to sing instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe scene unfolded when Gina Bellina took the stage, explaining to the judges that her granddaughter, Lilliana, had secretly signed her up for AGT. \u201cBehind my back, she signed me up,\u201d Bellina told the panel with a laugh. \u201cI only found out two days before I was meant to be here. I thought she was crazy, but she believed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith encouragement from the audience, Bellina began performing an original song written by Lilliana. But mid-performance, Cowell cut in. \u201cHang on a second,\u201d he said, turning to Lilliana in the audience. \u201cDid you write that song? You did? Can you sing it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVisibly nervous, Lilliana stepped on stage for an impromptu audition that quickly turned into a show-stopping moment. Her soulful rendition of the heartfelt track drew a standing ovation and left the judges speechless.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve got Gina here, but weirdly Gina got you here,\u201d Cowell told Lilliana afterwards. \u201cYou\u2019ve got the better voice. You\u2019re cool, and I think people are going to root for you. So, as long as Gina, you\u2019re prepared to let Liliana sing, this could work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSof\u00eda Vergara echoed the sentiment, saying, \u201cWe would have never known you had this beautiful, beautiful voice if Simon hadn\u2019t asked you to sing. I think people are going to love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judges were split on Bellina\u2019s original audition. Mel B admitted, \u201cI have to be honest, it didn\u2019t quite get there for me,\u201d voting no. But Mandel and Vergara said yes, pushing Lilliana through to the next round with Cowell\u2019s decisive vote.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerica\u2019s Got Talent airs Tuesdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of the most unexpected moments of America\u2019s Got Talent season 20 so far, Simon Cowell stunned…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4001,171,5499,173,4399,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-50977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-americas-got-talent","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music-news","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-tv-film","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114822446111399710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}