Simon Cowell Made This Family Sing Celine Dion A Cappella and It's Unbelievable
The longtime Judge stopped the Filipino singing group mid-performance, prompting the boos of an angry live audience.
A family from the Philippines had America’s Got Talent Judges literally crying after Simon Cowell put an unexpected stop to their Act.
Filipino singers L6 — consisting of five siblings and a niece — told Judges Cowell, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara, and Howie Mandel that they hoped to win the $1 million prize for a “big, big house” to better house their 10 siblings and one of their four children. Back in the Philippines, the household worked a small business selling gowns but took on singing to honor their mother.
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“This is our late mother’s dream, and before she passed away, her dream for us [was] to perform on America’s Got Talent,” said a male family member. “And this is it now.”
The music track for “All by Myself” came to life, and it started with a pitch-perfect harmony between brothers followed by one woman’s impeccable solo. But just as things were reaching great heights, Cowell put the kibosh on the act, prompting the audience to break out in booing and the soloist to cry.
“There are a lot of singing groups,” Cowell told the group. “I’m gonna do something which I think is gonna help you: Lose the track because, in my opinion, the track was terrible, and there aren’t many a capella groups, and I think you’ve got the potential to be a great a capella group.”
Cowell’s predictions would be correct, and by the end of the goosebump-raising performance, L6 walked away with four sweeping yesses.
What to know about “All by Myself”
“All by Myself” became an anthem of heartache and loneliness beginning in 1975 when written by songwriter Eric Carmen. Carmen said he based the tune on Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto before adding his own solo, as he explained in a 1991 interview published on the songwriter’s website. He composed four bars at a time before completing the music two months later, adding in the chorus from a 1973 song “Let’s Pretend,” which he'd written for The Raspberries.
“There were three different titles before it was ‘All by Myself,’” said Carmen.
The soft rock ballad was the leading track on his debut, self-titled album before it landed on the Billboard charts the following year, peaking at no. 2 on the Hot 100 charts.
It returned to the charts more than 20 years later when Celine Dion covered it on her 1996 album Falling into You and peaked at no. 4 in Billboard’s aforementioned category. It reached no. 1 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary lists and remains no. 9 on the Canadian superstar’s Biggest Hot 100 Hits of all time.
Dion sang it live at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards with music producer David Foster, where she won Best Pop Album and Album of the Year.
In a 2019 episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Dion discussed her insecurity about hitting the song’s high notes, which she and Foster had already agreed upon prior to recording. In the studio, however, Foster said he’d raised it “a key and a half higher,” and when Dion expressed uncertainty, Foster noted that other singers could do the job.
Dion, the legend that she is, looked directly into WWHL cameras and said, “That’s all I needed to hit the note.”
And, it seemed, Judge Cowell’s advice was all L6 needed to get to the next round of AGT.
Watch more impressive acts as Season 19 of America’s Got Talent continues, airing Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC and Peacock.
