- Hiya.
- Oh. I'm about to go onstage now.
I'm so nervous.
I wish you was all here.
- Thank you very much.
- Love you too. Thank you.
- Go out there, man. Make it happen.
Brother, it's all you, man.
We're waiting for you. Thank you, sir.
- All right. Here we go.
[cheers and applause]
- Hi.
- Hello.
Welcome.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- And who are you?
- I am Lee Collinson. I'm 21.
I'm from England. - Oh.
[cheers and applause] - Wow.
- Tell me what the dream is, Lee.
- The dream is to just be making music.
Whether that's a studio, whether that's touring,
whether that's singing.
I just want to be able to quit my day job and just do music.
- What's the day job?
- My day job is a fencer, not sword fighting.
Everyone says sword fighting. [laughter]
It's putting up fences, like domestic and gardens.
- Have you been to America before?
- No, first time. - Oh.
- You like it? - Love it.
The food is amazing.
I'm paying for it, but it's amazing.
- Okay, what's the song, and tell me,
please, why you chose it?
- It's Dermot Kennedy, uh, "Better Days."
I chose it because recent times obviously
have been really tough for everyone,
and it's just saying, obviously, we're going up now.
It's better to move on.
Lost a friend during lockdown.
Like, for me, it's very personal,
so I love it. - Okay.
And Lee, it's about what--half past 5:00, 6:00
in the morning in the UK-- are they waiting for the call?
- Yeah, yeah. Everyone's got alarms on.
My mom's waiting, and yeah, so...
- Aw. - All right, Lee, good luck.
- Thank you very much. Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
- That's so cute. - Very.
- That's gotta be hard.
Being so far away from home, alone.
- Never been here yet.
- Thank you very much.
[breathing shakily]
[cheers and applause]
[pensive music]
♪
- ♪ See, better days are coming ♪
♪ If no one told you
♪ I hate to hear you cryin'
♪ On the phone, dear
♪ For seven years runnin'
♪ You've been a soldier
♪ But better days are comin'
♪ See, better days are comin' for you ♪
♪ Oh, so when the night feels like forever ♪
♪ Oh, I'll remember what you said to me ♪
♪ I know you've been hurtin'
♪
♪ Waitin' on a train that just won't come ♪
♪ The rain, it ain't permanent ♪
♪ And soon, we'll be dancin' in the sun ♪
♪ We'll be dancin' in the sun
♪ And we'll sing our song together ♪
[cheers and applause] ♪ Oh
♪ Sing our song together, no, no ♪
♪
♪ Your story's gonna change
♪ Just wait for better days
♪ You've seen so much pain
♪ Now, you don't even know
♪ That your story's gonna change ♪
♪ Just wait for better days
♪ I promise you, I won't let go ♪
[wild cheering]
♪ I know you've been hurting
♪
♪ Waiting on a train that just won't come, no ♪
♪ The rain, it ain't permanent ♪
♪ And soon, we'll be dancing in the sun ♪
♪ We'll be dancing in the sun
♪ No, yeah
♪ Oh
♪ So we'll sing our song together, no, yeah ♪
♪ I'ma sing our song together, sing, oh ♪
♪ Sing our song together
[cheers and applause] Thank you very much.
[uplifting music]
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Standing O from the judges.
- Good for you, Lee.
- Thank you. - Howie.
- People don't understand at home the pressure that is
felt when somebody just walks out and stands on that stage.
And then when you take somebody as young as you are,
this is your first time in America.
And for you to take all that pressure and just
explode it off your shoulders and raise the roof
in this room is truly amazing.
[wild cheering] Great job.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- Heidi? - Yes.
- I think it was worth it, going on that
14-hour plane ride to come here.
- Yeah, yeah. - I really liked it.
You can sing, you look great, you have stage presence.
You nailed it. - Thank you very much.
Thank you. - Sofía?
- I don't know.
For some reason, the moment you stood there
and started talking, it was like, I love it.
I know I'm gonna love it.
I even told him, it's like,
he has such a beautiful personality.
- Thank you. - I was really hoping
that you had a great voice too. [chuckles]
And it was amazing.
Good for you. - Thank you very much.
Thank you.
- You know what?
There's something really charming
and humble and likeable about you,
and you probably don't even know how good you are.
- Thank you.
- And I hope this is the beginning
of something really special for you.
I really do. - Thank you very much.
- Can we call your mom with you?
- Oh, my God. - Yes, let's go.
[cheers and applause]
- Well, let's hope she answers.
- You have your phone?
Oh, here it is. Here it is.
- Lee, come down here. - Come down here.
Come down here. - Put her on FaceTime.
- If she's just woken up, she's gonna kill me.
- Oh my gosh, she's in pajamas.
- We want to see what your mom looks like
when she just wakes up. - Yeah.
- If she doesn't answer, I'm very sorry.
Oh, oh. [phone beeps]
All right? - Is it FaceTime?
- Mom, look.
[cheers and applause]
- [laughs] That's absolutely amazing.
- The screens off. She's shy. Let me put this by the phone.
Can you--can you hear us? - Yes.
- This is Howie Mandel, American sex symbol.
[laughter] Here.
- We love your son. [cheers and applause]
- Oh, my God.
- Hi! [laughter]
- What's your mom's name? - Sherry, Sherry.
- Sherry? - Yeah?
- Yeah, he was terrible.
[laughter]
Um, I just wanted to ask you why you put him on the plane.
[laughter]
- 'Cause he's absolutely wonderful
and he does deserve to be there.
- Okay, well, actually, I'm messing with you, Sherry.
We haven't voted yet, but we just wanted to wake you up.
And it was your son's idea to do this.
- Don't blame me. You're gonna get me in trouble.
- Anything you'd like to say to him?
- Just I love him so much.
- I love him so much. - Well, nice to talk to you.
- Yeah, but we have to vote. - Oh, okay, fine.
You can actually hear then, all right.
We've never done this before. Lee's about to go back onstage.
- She must be so confused. [chuckles]
- We're going to start with someone called Howie.
- Sherry, I want you to hear me
give your son his first yes!
- Thank you. [cheers and applause]
- One down. Heidi?
- It's a yes for me! - Thank you very much.
- Sherry, good job. Yes! - Amazing.
- Lee, Sherry, you have four yeses.
Congratulations. - Thank you very much.
[wild cheering]
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you very much. - Good for you. Well done.
[cheers and applause]
- Good luck in the competition.
- Good luck. - Wow.