AGT contestant's journey from living in her car to golden buzzer wows everyone

Miami Herald

11-06-2025

Charity Lockhart will have quite the story to tell at her 50th birthday party later this year.
The 49-year-old singer, who appeared on 'America's Got Talent' on June 10, went from being stopped by judge Simon Cowell midway through her set to earning a golden buzzer just minutes later.
Now, she has hopes of winning America's largest talent show and, one day, earning herself a Grammy.
And she has quite the story to go along with her ambitious goal.
As is tradition on the show, Lockhart shared her story and reason for auditioning — arguing that, while she loves singing and loves music, she primarily does it for her two kids.
She then joked that she's raising two 'little' children: a 27-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son.
Following a divorce years ago, Lockhart says the trio were forced to live in a car while she performed at clubs and bars to make ends meet.
'All I had was my voice,' she told the audience as her two kids looked on. 'I asked live bands if I can sing with them, and they would give me a little money at the end of the night.'
The family's first big break came when Lockhart won a local singing competition — which she joked was not as big as the stage she was standing on now.
'We won a monetary reward, and that gave us our first apartment,' she said to a crowd of cheers.
According to her website, Lockhart won $1,000 in that competition in Arizona. She went on to create an Aretha Franklin tribute show that she says was approved by the Franklin family.
The show was regularly performed on cruise ships and was 'rated one of the best-received acts on the international waters,' per her website.
Prior to her audition, Cowell encouraged Lockhart by telling her that 'anything is possible' when you have talent. 'So, we are all honestly rooting for you right now. Come on!' he said.
Lockhart's AGT audition starts off on the wrong foot
For her first song, Lockhart sang an a capella of Judy Garland's 'Over the Rainbow.'
Her talent was obvious, but she was cut short after just 30 seconds as Cowell put two hands in the air and asked her to stop.
'I stopped you because I like you, but it just wasn't working for me,' Cowell said to a crowd of boos.
'Have you got another song?' Cowell asked, giving Lockhart a chance at redemption.
For her second song, she performed a version of 'Golden Slumbers' by The Beatles — this time with background music.
'Look, I really want this to work for you. And I know this is a lot of pressure. But come on, you've got it in you. Let's hear the other song,' Cowell said before she started singing.
Sofía Vergara's jaw dropped 30 seconds later, and Cowell's jaw followed.
And that was before she started hitting whistle notes.
Mel B liked it so much that she was the first to stand up and cheer when the song ended — and the entire audience (including Cowell) followed.
'This is what a great audition is all about,' Cowell said. 'You know when people are going to talk about you the following day — that was one of those auditions. It was that good.'
Mel B uses her second golden buzzer of the season
As for Mel B, she had a golden look in her eye the entire performance.
'Oh man, you know what, every once in a while you see somebody, you connect with them and they just bring more and more to the table,' she said.
'I think you're amazing and I want to give you this right now,' she said — pressing the golden buzzer.
The 'golden buzzer' is a button that AGT judges can press when they are so impressed by an act that they want to send them directly to the live shows.
You can watch the golden moment in its entirety below:
It was Mel B's second use of the buzzer this season after sending the Messoudi Brothers straight to the live shows during the second night of auditions.
'Oh, I know instantly,' she told NBC Insider of her golden buzzer sense.
'Both my golden buzzers, I knew. And I'm like, 'Nobody on the desk knows that I'm gonna buzz?' I even went to everybody else to see what they thought. I played it well,' she added, per NBC News.
Live shows begin airing Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.