On May 31st, “America’s Got Talent” returned with a spectacular two hour premiere episode of its 17th season. Host Terry Crews welcomed series judges Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel back to the dais with performances from the first set of performance artists out of thousands that auditioned. Among those acts was Ben Lapidus whose cheesey original song did not immediately wow the judges. Watch the full audition in the video above.
After a string of disastrous auditions that the judges had to turn down, the hopes of Ben winning them over with an original song about cheese were slim. Both Howie and Simon are known to look unfavorably on musicians testing out their original songs on the show, and upon first listen the story was no different for Ben. The song, “Parmesan Cheese,” tells the simple story of someone going to an Italian restaurant and being embarrassed for always wanting “more parmesan” on his pasta. The lyrics comically announce that people have rights to more cheese and that he’d die before he lets “big parma win.”
Not only did Howie and Simon hit their red X buzzers for “Parmesan Cheese,” but so did Heidi and Sofia despite Heidi seemingly cheering on the subject matter of the song. She said she “feels the same way” and complained that restaurants are “always so stingy” with parmesan. When Simon, Howie and Sofia started telling Ben that they don’t like his song, the theater audience starting booing them for their decision and chanting “parmesan! parmesan! parmesan!”
Heidi felt the power of the crowd and suggested that Ben sing the song again in the hopes that they might be swayed to the parmesan platform. By the end of the second round, even Simon was chanting along with everyone, “I always want more parmesan, but I’m embarrassed.” With his face in his hands, Simon reluctantly admitted that the song caught on with him and he won’t be able to get it out of his head. Heidi joined Simon in switching their votes to a Yes, but Howie held firm, leaving the decision up to Sofia. Because of the crowd’s love of Ben, she said she has to vote Yes, but still told Simon and Heidi that they’re insane for making them have to hear this “horrific song” again.
How much did YOU like Ben Lapidus and do you think they can take home the $1 million prize? Sound off on them and the rest of the new season in the comments below and with other fans in our reality TV forum. Also be sure to make your predictions to influence our reality TV racetrack odds.
