“You rose to the occasion”— Howie Mandel praises Ashes and Arrows’ original composition in America's Got Talent season 19 episode 9 

America's Got Talent aired its first round of Quarterfinals on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. The show is scheduled to have 44 acts in the four batches of Quarterfinals, every week, the first being on this Tuesday. The first round of Quarterfinals had 11 performances. Among them was Ashes and Arrows, a country/rock band from Asheville, North Carolina, and Arrowtown, New Zealand.

The band, consisting of Ciaran McMeeken, Benjamin Voigt, and Jonathan Calhoun, performed their original song Wild Horses as the 6th act in the lineup. Their performance received enthusiastic applause from the audience and praise from the judges.

Howie Mandel gave a standing ovation along with the rest of 3 judges and said:

"Oh my God, now that song was not a pub, that song was great. You rose to the occasion that is worthy of it."

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First Quarterfinals of America's Got Talent season 19

The line-up of live acts was announced one week before via America's Got Talent YouTube channel. Howie Mandel introduced all 44 acts of the AGT Live shows, and asked the audience to comment on who they were going to vote for. For week one of the Quarterfinals, out of 11 only 4 acts will go for the Semi-finals, and 1 one of them will be chosen by the Judge who has the power to give the Golden Buzzer.

This is the new addition to America's Got Talent this season. Rest 3 will be selected by the audience's voting as per the show's previous format.

The line-up for the Quarterfinals of week one were:

Flewnt & Inkabee (Ages 29 & 11) - Rap Duo from Perth, Australia

Attraction Juniors (Ages 8-15) - Dance Group from Budapest, Hungary

Liv Warfield (Age 44) - Singer from Peoria, Illinois

Hypers Kids Africa (Ages 7-15) - Dance Group from Kampala, Uganda

Los Osos High School (Ages 15-18) - Dance Group from Los Osos, California

Ashes & Arrows (Ages 29-32) - Band from Asheville, North Carolina

Hakuna Matata Acrobatic (Ages 23-37) - Acrobatic Group from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Phillip Lewis (Age 27) - Baton Twirler from Statesboro, Georgia

Roni Sagi & Rhythm (Age 30) - Dog Act from Tel Aviv, Israel

Arshiya (Age 13) - Contortionist from Kashmir, India

Richard Goodall (Age 55) - Singer from Terre Haute, Indiana

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Ashes and Arrows performance on America's Got Talent Quarterfinals round one

Ashes and Arrows performed their original composition on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, in America's Got Talent, season 19. The band auditioned for the show by performing an original composition Born to Love, and got a standing ovation from two out of four judges, Simon Cowell and Sofia Vergara. However, Howie Mandel did not like their performance that much.

In episode 9 of season 19, the band made all the judges go on their feet, and Howie called their performance 'great'. He also added:

"I am going to make a prediction that, I bet everybody tomorrow that song is going to be on the chart. I believe it is."

Heidi Klum added:

"You sounded great, you sounded great individually, you sounded great when you were singing together, but I am still stuck on your high notes here with the blue denim vest."

The band at the end expressed their experience on America's Got Talent and said it was wild, exciting, and some unexpected fun along the way. The results of all the 11 performances of the Quarterfinals will be released on August 14, 2024.

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America's Got Talent season 19 is available on NBC and Peacock. The next round of quarterfinals is planned to air on August 20, 2024, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.