{"id":902215,"date":"2026-09-23T06:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902215\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T06:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:46:11","slug":"nene-royal-performs-in-agt-season-21-finale-will-she-win-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902215\/","title":{"rendered":"Nene Royal performs in \u2018AGT\u2019 Season 21 finale. Will she win? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nene Royal\u2019s audition for \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent<\/a>\u201d is the most viewed of the season \u2014 by a landslide. <\/p>\n

In just two months, the 16-year-old rocker\u2019s performance of The Cranberries\u2019 \u201cZombie\u201d has climbed up to 20 million views on the official \u201cAGT\u201d YouTube channel. Her performance of Soundgarden\u2019s \u201cBlack Hole Sun\u201d from just three weeks ago already has more than 13 million views. <\/p>\n

Now, in what should come as a surprise to no one, Royal is one of 10 acts competing in the \u201cAGT\u201d Season 21 finale, which airs Tuesday and Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Ahead of the finale, here\u2019s a look at her run on the show.<\/p>\n

Nene Royal goes viral on \u2018AGT\u2019<\/p>\n

Royal made her \u201cAGT\u201d debut the day before her 16th birthday. <\/p>\n

The guitarist and singer from Phuket, Thailand, told the show\u2019s judges that she started playing guitar at 7. According to her website<\/a>, she is largely self-taught and learned how to play \u201cprimarily by ear through online videos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to be a superstar on tour,\u201d she told the \u201cAGT\u201d judges.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Her timid demeanor disappeared the second she started shredding on her guitar. The judges were visibly in awe while watching the teenager perform.<\/p>\n

After exuding her rock star energy, Royal was emotional as she took in all the cheers and applause from the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a very, very good chance to do really good in this competition,\u201d \u201cAGT\u201d judge Sofia Vergara told the teenager following the performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a rock star young lady, you really are,\u201d \u201cAGT\u201d judge Howie Mandel added. <\/p>\n

During the quarterfinals, Mandel had even higher praise for the rising artist. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m not supposed to say this,\u201d Mandel said after Royal\u2019s performance of \u201cBlack Hole Sun.\u201d \u201dNBC, give her the million right now.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNene, I think you could really win this competition,\u201d Vergara added in support.<\/p>\n

The cheers from the crowd were so loud that \u201cAGT\u201d judge Mel B could barely talk. Instead, the judge chose to hit her golden buzzer for the singer-guitarist, immediately advancing her to the Season 21 finale. <\/p>\n

Now, Royal seems to have substantial support from \u201cAGT\u201d viewers and her home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government admires Nene and has full confidence in her talent. We want to represent the Thai people in wishing her success in winning America\u2019s Got Talent 2026, bringing pride to Thailand,\u201d Ploythalay Laksameesaengjan, the deputy government spokesperson for Thailand, told the Bangkok Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What Nene Royal said about competing on \u2018AGT\u2019<\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019s a standout contestant this season, Royal wasn\u2019t even aware she had gone viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt adds a little bit of pressure because suddenly there\u2019s so many people watching me and supporting me,\u201d she told Talent Recap<\/a>. \u201cSometimes I still can\u2019t believe how much everything has grown online. I just want to focus on giving the best performance and showing people something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here from Thailand with my guitar and a dream, and I never expected this journey to become this big,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n

\"\"Nene Royal auditions for \u201cAGT.\u201d The 16-year-old singer-guitarist is one of 10 acts in the Season 21 finale. | Chris Haston\/NBC Who is competing in the \u2018AGT\u2019 Season 21 finale? <\/p>\n

Royal is one of two singers in the finals. Fourteen-year-old Lai Noelle, a powerhouse singer who has received a golden buzzer twice this season, is another standout contestant. <\/p>\n

The remaining acts in the finale include: <\/p>\n

Acro Canine Crew (dog act)Come Here (dance crew)Geno Ploeger (magician)Hundred Fingers (magic and illusion group)Olivia Befus (dog act)Royal Lasers (dance and laser act)Unitree (robot dance crew)Veronika Goroshkova (aerialist)<\/p>\n

The top 10 performances air Tuesday at 8 p.m. MDT on NBC. The show will reveal the Season 21 winner, based on online voting, Wednesday night. The two-hour finale episode airs at 8 p.m. MDT. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nene Royal\u2019s audition for \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent\u201d is the most viewed of the season \u2014 by a landslide.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,14475,427],"class_list":["post-902215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-news-feed-national","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}