Spoiler alert! This story discusses America’s Got Talent Season 21’s episode from August 25. If you need to catch up, you can stream it with a Peacock subscription.
The second group of artists performing on AGT’s live quarterfinals got the chance to take the stage on Tuesday in hopes of earning enough votes from America to advance to the semifinals. Amongst those was Nene Royal, the 16-year-old rock star from Thailand who’s been going viral since her shocking audition. I was really excited to see her perform live, but I wasn’t ready for how the judges reacted.
Speaking of the judges, Simon Cowell missed the episode that aired August 25 on the 2026 TV schedule, as Terry Crews explained he was undergoing an “operation that cannot be postponed.” Mel B, Howie Mandel and Sofía Vergara held down the fort just fine, but I’m certain that Cowell was disappointed he had to miss Nene Royal’s rendition of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.”
Check it out below:
After Nene Royal caught the audience (and judges) off-guard at her audition with The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” she got a little mentoring from Howie Mandel during America’s Got Talent’s first callback round. She played to an intimate crowd at The Laugh Factory, seemingly proving her nerves of steel, and still I wasn’t prepared for how she shredded that guitar to the ‘90s hit.
Clearly, Howie Mandel wasn’t ready for it either, because when the song was over, his first reaction was:
I know I’m not supposed to say this. NBC, give her the million right now.
It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Howie Mandel thinks Nene Royal has what it takes to win America’s Got Talent Season 21. But of course he does — he chose to mentor her during callbacks, after all — so what did the other judges think?
I mean, I wouldn’t take Sofía Vergara for a fan of hard rock, but she’s definitely a fan of Nene Royal, as she agreed with Howie Mandel, saying:
Nene, I think you could really win this competition, because you can sing, and you play the guitar, the way that you look. No wonder everybody in the street asks me about you. I think you can win.
And while the panel’s Spice Girl admitted the teenage rocker’s genre wasn’t as poppy as the music she typically prefers, Mel B couldn’t deny that Nene Royal gave a Golden Buzzer-worthy performance. That means the Thai musician joins the Hundred Fingers magicians in going straight through to the AGT Season 21 finale.
Voting is open until 7 a.m. ET Wednesday, August 26, with the three highest vote-getters from Tuesday’s show moving onto the semifinals. Tune in to see who made it on the live results show, airing at 8 p.m. ET August 26, on NBC, then come back for more live quarterfinals next Tuesday.
