North Logan’s Kenadi Dodds fulfilled a dream by performing on one of the world’s biggest stages, but walking away with $1 million and an opportunity to headline her own show in Las Vegas won’t be happening. That honor was granted to Brandon Leake, a spoken-word poet from California who received the most votes after Tuesday night’s final performances on NBC’s America’s Got Talent.
The 15-year-old was among 10 finalists who performed and competed over the course of several months. She performed original songs and covers of big country hits. Before the winner was known, Wednesday’s results show featured multiple mash-ups and famous acts paired with America’s Got Talent finalists. Kenadi was featured on the piano with the other finalists as they sang a tribute performance of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.” Withers passed away earlier this year at the age of 81.
Kenadi and finalist Roberta Battaglia, 11, were featured alongside Julia Michaels and JP Saxe, performing the hit single “If the World Was Ending.” The young singers took turns singing along with one of the fastest rising stars in American music.
Kenadi and Roberta appeared together on stage once again later in the show, but this time it was to learn who remained in the top five. Battaglia advanced while Dodds exited the stage.
Before Tuesday’s finale, Kenadi said she plans to keep working toward a music career in Nashville.
“I’m going to keep working as hard as I can to hopefully go to Nashville, and hopefully record an album, and hopefully keep growing and building and keep learning to the point where I reach my goals and my dreams,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot of work and I won’t stop working. I love music.
“AGT has been such an amazing platform to be on and it gives me so much publicity. I feel like I will keep working as hard as I can to keep growing and to keep building my talent and use that momentum to push forward.”
You can see Kenadi’s performance on Wednesday’s results show here:
She never had a chance in this climate of false redemption, because she is white.
I have to agree with you, but I think in the end she will do very well.
I find it unlikely that your assertion is correct, but regardless of if your opinion is correct or not, it doesn’t matter. African Americans have been overlooked, passed-over, and denied opportunities when they were clearly the most talented candidate for centuries. If anything, the outcome of the competition is at least an infinitesimal measure of justice. No sympathy for “kenadi” from me. I’m not going to sit here and whine about outcomes that I interpret as zero-sum results just because I don’t like the idea of African Americans succeeding in a small way.
Plus, what is the point of having *another* singer win AGT? The spoken word poet is an objectively more appropriate winner for the show’s stated intentions. There are far too many singers that try out for and make it on that show because they couldn’t make it on the Voice or American Idol.
Amazing performance. CVD could have come up with a better title….she didn’t fall short in my opinion. She’s accomplished a lot more than many of us.