Her AGT audition, where she got the audience to sing Africa by Toto, has garnered more than 2 million views on YouTube.
While the crowd gave her a standing ovation and judges Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel praised her, Mel B and Sofia Vergara were a little unsure about the act.
“I enjoyed it. I thought they [the audience] enjoyed it. It was like a really cute moment. I don’t see where it could get better if you pass now and I don’t think it’s for AGT,” Vergara said.
“You know, I think you’re a really lovely girl. But this is your audition, not their audition. You know what I mean?” Mel B said.
“I’m really, really, really, really going to disagree with you. And I’ll tell you why. I think what you [Jorgensen] did was really smart,” Cowell said.
“Because within about 20 seconds every single person in this audience was singing the song. So to have the capacity to do that within seconds and actually allow the audience to win the show is brilliant.”
She eventually passed to the next round with three “yes” votes and one “no”, from Mel B. Jorgensen says it was “a lot to process” that feedback from Mel B, one of her childhood heroes.
Initially, she was unsure about going on the show, since she isn’t American, but then she figured she could reframe it as a performance to showcase “America has talent”.
“It really seems to have sparked a huge response worldwide, like the biggest I’ve ever had for anything I’ve done,” she says.
“I’ve been chipping away at this idea for eight years. I’ve been practising music every day of my life and suddenly something has really clicked in the minds of a lot of people watching.”
Jorgensen says she can’t reveal a lot of what goes on behind the scenes of the show, since she had to sign documents, but she swears that she never met anybody in the audience beforehand.
“They were a room, as it is at every single Pub Choir show, of total strangers and my job was to try and convince them to sing something.
“If you’ve been to a Pub Choir show, what I will say is, you might have seen that it takes me a bit of time to tell people which side of the room will suit their voice and to let them have a little run through. That’s what happens at a regular pub choir show. Perhaps you can draw the blanks in … But the result is real and it is at every show. That’s kind of like the magic for me.”
The Pub Choir idea blossomed in 2017, when Jorgensen wanted to retire from the classroom but continue making music in a non-competitive way.
Following a recording of Zombie by The Cranberries, the video went viral putting Pub Choir on to the international stage.
Jorgensen has gone on to make headlines around the world, received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2023, and grabbed the attention of artists, including Mariah Carey, Kate Bush and Sir Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.
“I feel like just pig-headedly, if I get in front of a room of people, I will convince them to sing something.”
It’s not the first time Kiwis have made it on to the show, others in previous years include comedian Sam Wills, known for his mime act Tape Face, Justice Crew’s Samson Smith and Solo Tohi, and musician Ciaran McMeeken.
– RNZ
