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When Tina Lee mentioned that her son could also sing - at the time, he was particularly fond of the song “Shout” - the performers invited him on stage. The singers noticed Lee, who was drumming his hands and feet as they sang, and complimented his rhythm. At one point, they stopped to eat lunch by a stage, where four singers came out and performed a cappella. He was in a wheelchair at the time due to his tactile defensiveness. When Kodi Lee turned 6, the family took a trip to Disneyland. Lee ultimately found her answer at “the happiest place on Earth.” But you lose a little hope because you don’t know what to do,” she said. “We just kept giving him as much music as we could, as many instruments as we could, because he wanted to play them. “He’s really good at ‘name that tune’ - you don’t want to go up against him.”īut while she knew her son loved music, she said the family felt “discouraged,” unsure of the best way to help him. “He was pretty much downloading everything he heard in his head,” Lee said, noting that he is a “ musical prodigious savant” and has an audio photographic memory that allows him to recall a song after just one listen. Lee figured he just wanted to keep the music to himself, so she let him do his own thing and supplied him with music as needed. But when he took the mic, he just made funny noises. Once, for a family get-together, Lee had a karaoke machine so her son could show off his musical skills to relatives. He picked up song after song, and frequently sang around the house. “I had never even heard of Sublime until he was singing it,” Tina Lee said with a laugh. It took a while for his mother to figure out what he was singing, but eventually, she was able to track down the band: Sublime. When he was around 2 ½ or 3 years old, he would scoot around and sing, “Love is what I got, remember that” over and over. ‘America’s Got Talent’: Utah native Kodi Lee wins season 14įor a long time, Kodi Lee scooted around on his back to get from one place to another.‘AGT’: Utah native Kodi Lee celebrates ‘America’s Got Talent’ victory.27).Įven after two-plus decades, she still has a hard time comprehending her son’s unique musical gift.īut this much she knows: Music brings him indescribable joy. 6 to compete on “ AGT: All-Stars,” where he earned the most votes and secured his spot as one of 11 acts in the show’s finale (the show will reveal the winner on Feb. Tina Lee has spent the past 26 years advocating for her son, who returned to “AGT” Feb.

And even for me as his mother, I’m like, ‘How is that possible?’” But you see him on stage, he’s a completely different person. When you talk to him and meet him, he can’t really form a complete sentence. “Because Kodi’s like two different people.

“I can understand why they thought that,” she told the Deseret News. She’s also come across some skeptical comments, with some viewers accusing him of “faking it.” Lee’s 2019 audition for “AGT” has been viewed more than 430 million times and marks the show’s most-viewed viral moment, according to “AGT.” In the years since, Tina Lee has read thousands of comments from viewers thanking her son for being such an inspiration. I’ve been so many places in my life and time

But his rich voice soared as the lyrics to Leon Russell’s “A Song For You” came effortlessly: Just minutes earlier, he had struggled to string words together while talking to the judges.
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She then walked him to the black Roland piano and gave him a short pep talk, asking if he was ready to go.Īnd then she left the stage, leaving her son alone with a piano and an auditorium full of spectators. “It actually has saved his life,” she said. As he rocked back and forth next to her, Tina Lee shared how their family discovered his love for music early on, and how it has helped him navigate day-to-day obstacles. His mom then took a minute to tell the judges more about her son, explaining that he is blind and autistic. His mom, Tina Lee, stood to his left, holding up a microphone so her son could tell the judges a little bit about himself.Īmid some long pauses, Kodi Lee said “hello,” stated that he was 22 years old and shared that he would be performing a song. Kodi Lee locked arms with his mom as he stood on the “ America’s Got Talent” stage, facing the show’s judges.
