Air Force Vet Benjamin Hightower's "Pink Pony Club" Gets Standing Ovation on AGT
Hightower was a highlight during the third round of Season 20 Auditions.
He's having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee. Literally.
Benjamin Hightower, one of the standout Acts from the third day of Auditions for Season 20 of America's Got Talent, grew up in Alabama and Tennessee, so his choice of song, "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan, couldn't have been more perfect.
Hightower said his love of the arts was sparked when he was just 5 years old on a family trip to New York where he saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. But after high school, he wasn't yet ready to pursue his dreams, and spent seven years as an active duty member of the Air Force.
"Through the Air Force I met the most wonderful people and I saw the world and I got to serve my country. And I’m really proud of that, but in my heart knew I wanted to do music and wanted to be on a stage like this," he said. "Last year I had a choice to make. Be in the Air Force for more years and keep watching other people taking a leap and going after their dreams, or get out and pursue this. And it was the hardest scariest choice I’ve ever had to make."
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What to know about Benjamin Hightower on AGT
If it seems like Hightower simply belonged on that stage, it just might be because he's been there before! In 2017, he sang lead in the Air Force's a cappella group In the Stairwell, which made it all the way to the AGT Semi-Finals.
This time around, Hightower got to show off his voice's unique texture. Sofía Vergara called his performance "the perfect audition. This is what you’re supposed to be doing... I think America’s gonna love you."
Mel B. added that she loved his "raspiness and vibrato."
The special meaning of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” to Benjamin Hightower
Roan's song, inspired by a real gay bar in West Hollywood, tells the story of a girl who comes from Tennessee and becomes a dancer in California at a fictional strip club. Ultimately, the track is really about the journey from one's hometown to wherever you go to chase your dreams. In the song, she sings many of the lyrics to her mother, saying she still thinks of her fondly but had to leave in order to become herself.
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It couldn't be a more fitting choice for Hightower. "I’m from Tennessee and my mom is right there [in the audience] so there’s a special…I’m singing it to her," he remarked from the stage. After getting four yeses, he marveled, "If the little kid who grew up in Tennessee could see me now he’d be so proud."
