Get To Know 'AGT' Contestant Kodi Lee Who's Blind, Autistic, And Winning People's Hearts
His story is so amazing!
Instagram Every once in a while, a contestant comes to a reality show that instantly becomes a fan favorite. Whether we're talking about William Hung, Susan Boyle or even Carrie Underwood, reality show contestants have been winning over our hearts for nearly a decade. But this contestant, who recently appeared on America's Got Talent, has captured our hearts for a whole new reason altogether. Who is Kodi Lee?
Let's look at what we know about this new fan favorite.
1. He's a musical prodigious savant.
According to his official website, the 23-year-old — who was diagnosed with autism at a young age — suffers from optic nerve hypoplasia, which caused him to be blind since childhood. He also had life-saving surgery when he was five-years-old. Despite all this, he showed musical talent young, which made doctors realize that he was a musical prodigious savant.
2. Kodi Lee enchanted people with his performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Yahoo! reported: "On Tuesday, Kodi Lee, an autistic and blind musician, took the stage on America’s Got Talent (AGT) for the second time, where he again blew the audience away with a soulful rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Lee first appeared during an audition episode of the popular reality competition in May. He received the show’s golden buzzer from judge Gabrielle Union thanks to his performance of Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You.” The buzzer allows AGT contestants to advance directly to the show’s live semi-finals. The video of his performance has since garnered more than 42 million views."
3. He earned the first Golden Buzzer of the season.
According to AOL, Kodi Lee was the first contestant to earn a coveted "golden buzzer" this season. The "golden buzzer" allows contestants to advance to the semi-finals without concern of being eliminated. That, alone, makes his performance even more noteworthy!
4. Kodi Lee's mom has been courting fame for him since 2012.
In a 2012 interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Tina Lee said that she's been trying to help her son get famous for the longest time. "This is Kodi’s dream. Right now he teaches himself. He’s a genius. He needs to be challenged,” she said to the outlet.
5. Some people believe that Kodi Lee is "the one to watch."
According to E! News, Kodi Lee is so good at what he does that he's quickly emerging as a fan favorite. The outlet also believes that he's so good, he could actually take home the final win!
6. Even Simon Cowell is impressed with Kodi Lee.
“Amazing, amazing, amazing,” Simon told Parade.com on the red carpet when asked about Kodi’s performance. “We have said that before on certain shows and judging by the audiences’ reaction and just walking down the carpet tonight, everyone is talking about him, and what I felt myself, it was one of those occasions when someone has a huge first audition and then matches that performance on the Live Shows. That doesn’t happen a lot, but what he did with the song was actually quite incredible. It was the perfect end to a live show.”
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.