Update, 11.40pm: PopLyfe made it to the finals in tonight’s America’s Got Talent show.
Kehlani Parrish, a Berkeley High Junior, received an outpouring of praise from all three America’s Got Talent judges last night, along with her band PopLyfe, who performed a foot-tapping medlée of Jackson Five songs on the show’s semi-final season episode.
Parrish not only packed a punch into her singing, she had the chutzpah to encourage judge Piers Morgan to join his fellow judges in a standing ovation after the performance, calling on him to “stand up” from the stage.
Morgan acknowledged that PopLyfe fully warranted him leaving his chair, and said: “What we’re looking for right now is an act that can represent our show and America. An act that can go out, entertain, inspire, have fun, make money, live the life of stars. You are a great pop band, that’s what you are.”
Sharon Osbourne was also full of praise for the group and for Parrish personally. “Kehlani, you belong missus. You are loved. You’ve got yourself going a huge fan base already,” she said.
Howie Mandel, the show’s third judge, was unambiguous: “Everybody in America: you are idiots if you do not start voting and put these people through to the final. There is no other act that will appeal to a wider audience.”
Parrish’s band mates are students at the Oakland School of the Arts. Berkeley High put out a note on its e-tree yesterday encouraging the BHS community to watch the show, and news the band’s success was broadcast on the school’s P.A. this morning.
Read about the band, who practice in Oakland, in their bio on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” website. The next episode of the show airs tonight at 9pm PST.
