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New York — Simon Cowell made a bold prediction about a 12-year-old singer with a ukulele: "I think you're the next Taylor Swift."
That's what he told Grace VanderWaal after she wowed the America's Got Talent judges in Tuesday's auditions with a heart-piercing song she wrote about herself that immediately shot her into the semifinals.
"I don't know my name. I don't play by the rules of the game," she sang. "I'm lost, trying to get found in an ocean..."
The Suffern, New York resident left the judges amazed as she took them, with a shy smile, on a musical ride peaking with, "I now know my name."
Howie Mandel called her "a living, beautiful, walking miracle" — then pressed the golden buzzer that sent her to the live semifinals.
Watch the breathtaking performance here:
