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Simon Cowell Left Speechless By 12-Year-Old, Dubbed The Next Taylor Swift, And 82-Year-Old Hard Rocker

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 03:51 PST, Jun 14, 2016

Simon Cowell is notorious for being a tough, hard-to-impress judge on reality television shows like Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor. However, the acerbic Simon was left awestruck by some of the recent performances on America’s Got Talent. Most notable was the performance of the 12-year-old Grace VanderWaal, whose powerhouse vocals and ukulele skills have piqued the interests of some of the toughest critics in the music world.

Grace’s performance on her “I Don’t Know My Number” song won her the golden buzzer as well as sincere accolades from Simon Cowell. According to Time, Simon was mesmerized by the flawless performance to such an extent that he honored Grace by revealing that the talented and aspiring singer reminded him of Taylor Swift, one of America’s biggest pop stars.

In yet another instance, Simon Cowell was left stunned when John Hetlinger, an 82-year-old retired aerospace engineer, took the stage to deliver a powerful rendition of Drowning Pool’s “Bodies.” The senior citizen, an enthusiastic karaoke singer who has been retired for 15 years, shocked the judges and the audience with his cover of the hard rock song. Apart from Simon Cowell, the panel of judges included Mel B, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel. The Mirror reports that Simon was left dumbfounded while other judges visibly in shock as John rocked on stage.

And another angel who managed to mellow down the red buzzer-loving Simon Cowell was none other than Eric Cowell, his 2-year-old son. Cute Eric is one of the few people who can actually make Simon Cowell gush. OK! Magazine reported that the intimidating Simon showed his softer side backstage at America’s Got Talent by playing with Eric.

Simon Cowell was seen entertaining his lookalike toddler son with Mr. Potato Head before feeding him some raisins. Later, Heidi Klum joined the father-son duo in their playful fun and talked with Eric. Eric Cowell has become somewhat of a celebrity in his own right, as his Dad’s celebrity friends often take cute photos of him and post them on their social media accounts.

It seems that Eric Cowell will grow to become Simon’s right-hand man as he frequently accompanies his father to auditions. Eric seems to enjoy the auditions and has been spotted dancing along with his favorite acts during the auditions. Only time will tell as to whether Eric likes the same kinds of acts as his father, or whether the pair will be butting heads in the future about which acts should go through to the next round and which need to be ridiculed and sent home.

Meanwhile, Simon Cowell is all set to kick-start the new season of the The X Factor, which will be telecast later this year. According to the Evening Standard, the auditions are well underway, and fans are excited to see Simon Cowell along with this year’s fellow judges Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh, and Nicole Scherzinger on the panel after replacing judges, Cheryl, Nick Grimshaw, and Rita Ora.

Additionally, Dermot O’Leary will make his return to Simon Cowell’s popular talent show after it was confirmed that Olly Murs and Caroline Flack won’t continue to host the show. However, both Simon Cowell and Dermot O’Leary are currently unwell, raising concerns that they may not make it to the first day of the X Factor auditions.

Earlier this month, Simon Cowell’s bout of illness forced him to pull out of his own charity event, and it became doubtful as to whether he would be able to make it for the opening round of auditions. Fans of Simon Cowell and The X Factor were therefore thrilled to see that he bounced back from his illness in time for the first round of auditions, as reported by the Mirror.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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america's got talent x factor simon cowell britain's got talent Taylor Swift
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