Britain's Got Talent star is a US hit with second chance talent show appearance
Britain's Got Talent star Tom Ball has made a triumphant return to TV contests with an appearance on America's Got Talent that went down a storm with US viewers.
Simon Cowell, the head judge on both sides of the pond, is recycling contestants from other versions of the global hit show in AGT: All-Stars, currently airing in America, where he introduced Ball as "like Susan Boyle's grandson".
AGT: All-Stars includes past America's Got Talent contestants, as well as some performers from other versions of the show around the world, who battle it out in a best-of-the-best competition for a second chance at glory.
Read more: Everything we know about Britain's Got Talent 2023 so far
Explaining to viewers who Ball is, Cowell said of the BGT 2022 contestant: "A lot of people thought Tom was going to win."
This time, the 24-year-old teacher showcased his amazing singing voice with Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence, prompting Cowell to compare him to BGT superstar Boyle, whose unexpected performance of I Dreamed A Dream in her first audition in 2009 went viral and made her an international hit.
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Cowell told Ball: "You’re like Susan Boyle’s grandson, because what you do is not what we expect. For me, this is the best performance we’ve seen all series."
He added: "I’m actually angry about something. I wish this was the first time I’d ever heard Tom, in a weird way.
"This is the song that I believe, if you had done this, you would have won [Britain’s Got Talent] that year. Because that was incredible."
Cowell's words might have surprised BGT fans, as the 2022 series - where Ball came third - was actually won by the head judge's own Golden Buzzer choice, comedian Axel Blake.
All-Stars sees two contestants from each round advance to the finals - one chosen by a group of superfans, and the other a unanimous Golden Buzzer choice by Cowell, fellow judges Heidi Klum and Howie Mandell, and show host Terry Crews.
The judges and Crews settled on Ball as their pick, making him the first solo singer to get to the finals in the contest so far which has been running for five weeks.
