Watch a Birmingham youth choir win the Golden Buzzer on ‘America’s Got Talent’

In a truly joyful performance, the Birmingham Youth & Young Adult Fellowship Choir won a Golden Buzzer during Tuesday’s episode of ‘America’s Got Talent.’

Terry Crews, host of America’s Got Talent, posted the choir’s performance on X and congratulated the group.

The Birmingham group performed a rendition of ‘Joyful, Joyful Lord We Adore Thee’ infused with elements of hip hop.

The performance received tremendous applause from the audience and all of the judges gave a standing ovation.

Simon Cowell gave the Birmingham Youth Fellowship Choir the Golden Buzzer after thanking them for performing on the show.

”I can see and hear how much work went into this,” Cowell said.

“Every single one of you played the perfect part we had lead vocals, we had emotion. I’m so honored that you would come here on our 20th anniversary and in return I want to give you something.”

The choir’s director, Akheem Lee, said the group was started in 2015 as a way to give back to the community but it continued to grow after youth kept requesting to join the.

Lee told Cowell that the youth choir decided to audition for the show this year to demonstrate that Birmingham has talented individuals despite often being “last on the list when you think about cities in America.“

Lee said that the city has a tragic yet rich history and said that he grew up at the 16th Street Baptist Church, the church that was bombed in a 1963 white supremacy attack resulting in the death of four Black children.

“While that bombing was such a tragic situation it played such an instrumental role in bringing international attention to the civil rights struggle in America and Birmingham particularly,” Lee said.

“Sixty something years later the choir exists. So, we wanted the opportunity to show that Birmingham, Alabama has some talented young people and we want to do something great for the community.”

The choir is one of 10 acts that will be able to receive a Golden Buzzer during this season of ‘America’s Got Talent.’

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