‘AGT’: Blind 17-Year-Old Earns Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer

Another episode of  likely had fans in tears, and this time, it was because Simon Cowell pushed the Golden Buzzer for a contestant that was definitely deserving. In this week’s episode of the talent competition, it was the second night of auditions for Season 18, and out came 17-year-old Indonesian singer/songwriter Putri Ariani, who is also blind, but her confidence was still astounding.

The singing hopeful explained to the panel of judges that her dream was to be a successful singer, even on the levels of Whitney Houston, and win Grammys. She also shared her hope to go to Juilliard, one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world, after high school. Putri admitted that her biggest challenge is that people look at her like a blind person, but when she’s singing, she feels “like a superstar.” 

Putri Ariani ended up singing not one but two songs, even dedicating the second one to Simon Cowell. After singing, she confessed that it was an original, which continued to keep people out of their seats to give her a standing ovation. Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, and Heidi Klum sang their own praises for Ariani, Simon Cowell agreed with his fellow judges before standing up to hit the Golden Buzzer to send her right through to the live shows.

Any time an act is sent through with the Golden Buzzer, there’s not a dry eye in the room, whether you’re there or at home. Someone as inspirational and talented as Putri Ariani definitely deserved that buzzer, and it’s going to be exciting and emotional to see her continue to grow. Hopefully, that Golden Buzzer did the trick, and her audition on AGT serves as her audition for Juilliard because if anyone should go to that college, it’s her.

With plenty more auditions to go on AGT and a few more Golden Buzzers to hand out, it’s very likely there will be more emotional moments that fans will be looking forward to, so it’s best to have tissues while watching. New episodes of America’s Got Talent air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, so make sure to tune in to see who else will get the coveted Golden Buzzer and to later see Putri Ariani’s journey on the series, where she will likely get very far.