A 10-year-old contestant named Harper shocked the judges on Tuesday night’s (June 14th) edition of America’s Got Talent with a crushing version of rising Canadian metal act Spiritbox’s “Holy Roller.” What’s more, the episode aired on the same night that she performed the song onstage with Spiritbox at their show in London.
Harper, who hails from Somerset, England, walked out onto the America’s Got Talent stage in a black floral dress, eliciting “awws” and a “so cute” from judges Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara. With Howie Mandel absent from this taping, Klum invited Harper’s dad to take the comedian’s seat on the judges’ panel.
When the music for the metal song kicked in, looks of surprise came over Klum, Vergara, and Simon Cowell, but it was when Harper transitioned from the melodic vocal intro to an extreme gutteral scream that the judges truly were mesmerized.
When it was over, she received a standing ovation from the audience, with Cowell commenting, “Have you ever seen a film called The Exorcist? Actually, kidding aside, that was brilliant. I mean, brilliant. It was like a mouse turning into a vampire bat or something.”
Vergara remarked, “It’s like you have a monster inside … It was so effortless … It was just something come out of her that was so crazy.”
All three judges gave her a “Yes,” meaning that Harper is moving on to the next round.
Coincidentally, Spiritbox, likely having seen Harper’s YouTube rendition of “Holy Roller” from last year, invited the young girl to perform with them onstage during their Tuesday night show O2 Academy Islington in London. She joined singer Courtney LaPlante and company for a rousing version of the same tune.
Fans in North American can catch Spiritbox when they hit the road with Ghost and Mastodon on a recently announced tour that kicks off in August. Tickets for those shows are available via Ticketmaster.
Watch Harper perform on America’s Got Talent and with Spiritbox in London in the video clips below.