The Story of Celine Tam _ Beyond America's Got Talent

Celine Tam is an 11-year-old singer from Hong Kong who is best known for appearing on season 12 of America's Got Talent. She is the daughter of Chinese vocal coach Dr. Steve Tam and his wife Jie Min Shan. She also has a younger sister named Dion who is five years old. Celine's parents were such big fans of Celine Dion that they named both of their daughters after the Canadian singer. According to her father, Celine began singing at a very young age. Celine's parents first discovered her singing ability one afternoon when she was riding in the car with her parents and baby sister. Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On came on the radio and little Celine started to sing along, leaving her dad in utter amazement. At just three years old, she began her vocal lessons with her dad and he worked on helping his daughter attain her dreams of becoming a singer. Nicknamed the Celine Dion of Hong Kong, she has performed at events all over the world and made appearances on both national Chinese and American television. Celine first performed publicly when she was just four years old. She got her big break at the age of five years old when she was featured on a program called Let's Sing Kids in China. The show featured talented kids and Celine performed Secret Garden's You Raise Me Up, made popular by Josh Groban. Later on the show, Celine performed a duet of You Raise Me Up with Jeffrey Lee and it was this performance that really started Celine on her journey. In 2014, Celine performed Let It Go from the movie Frozen with pop singer Sheila Osma at the Shanghai Love Concert. Celine and Jeffrey Lee also appeared on the NBC show Little Big Shots after their duet of You Raise Me Up went viral in America's Got Talent was not Celine's first experience with the Got Talent contest. Celine actually competed on season 10 of Britain's Got Talent but her audition was not televised. She advanced past the audition round on the show but failed to advance to the live shows. At this point, Celine had established herself on mainland China and within Hong Kong with her powerful singing voice. Her father had been a huge inspiration and given her guidance and direction. It was time to pursue her dream of appearing on America's Got Talent. For her audition, the then nine-year-old sang Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On from the movie Titanic. The stunning performance earned a standing ovation from the audience and judges. After the performance, all four judges voted yes, sending Celine to the Judge Cuts round. For her Judge Cuts performance, Celine performed How Am I Supposed to Live Without You by Michael Bolton. Celine once again wowed the crowd with her incredible vocals. Guest judge Laverne Cox was so impressed with the performance that she pressed her golden buzzer for Celine, sending Celine straight to the quarterfinals. Celine's quarterfinal performance consisted of the nine-year-old singer atop of a rose belting out Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's When You Believe. Before the performance, Celine's father opened up about the pride he felt towards his daughter, saying he admired her for her dreaming so big. Watching my daughter chasing her dream, that was my first time crying, he said. I was so proud of her. We're lucky to have her here. Celine again earned a standing ovation for the performance. Judge Mel B, however, wasn't a fan of the performance, saying she thought the song was too big for the singer. Judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel were impressed with the performance, and Celine received enough votes to advance to the semifinal round. For her semifinal performance, Celine performed Oscar-nominated hit How Far I'll Go from the Disney movie Moana. After the performance, Judge Simon Cowell told Celine that this was the perfect song choice, and Judge Howie Mandel wished her well. Judge Mel B, however, did not like the song and received boos from the crowd after declaring that the song was too musical theater. Unfortunately, Celine failed to earn enough votes to advance to the finals and was eliminated from the show. After the show, Celine tweeted, No matter how far I'll go, my heart will go on, thanking her family and saying that she hopes that someday she can sing with Celine Dion. A few days later, Celine Dion retweeted little Celine's post and included a special message. The music icon wrote, Congrats! You did an amazing job on At A.G.T. If ever you and your family are in Las Vegas, I would love for you to be guests at my show. Celine may have been eliminated before the finals, but viewers clearly hadn't had enough of the young singer. A week later, Celine reprised her Moana semifinal performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show after being invited by the talk show host after her elimination. I was very excited to meet you, Celine told the host as the pair hugged after the performance. Well, I'm excited to meet you, Ellen replied. You're amazing. Also adding, Celine should still be on A.G.T. Celine maintained a positive outlook after her elimination. She said, I just feel amazed by America giving so much love and support. Thanks to them for voting for me. It's very hard coming this far, and I really just want to thank you, America. Later that year, Celine was named Hong Kong's top trending YouTube star of 2017. At the time, her America's Got Talent edition YouTube video had been viewed more than 42 million times. After America's Got Talent, Celine returned to school, but audiences were still eager to see her. In December of 2017, German superstar Helen Fisher invited Celine to sing a charming duet of You Raise Me Up. The two singers delivered a stirring rendition with Celine holding her own with the international superstar. In September of the following year, Celine participated in the Japanese karaoke singing competition, the Mozart Music King No. 1. She won two consecutive challenges, earning the opportunity to compete in the final round. In the final battle, Celine challenged the champion, 15-year-old Hinata, and performed Let It Go from the movie Frozen. Celine's performance was strong enough to win the battle, and she became the champion of the show. Celine's latest project has her once again returning to the Got Talent series with her appearance on World's Got Talent, which airs on Hunan TV China. For her audition, Celine performed her first original song, Who I Am. Celine's performance was so impressive that it earned her a golden buzzer and a trip straight to the semi-final of the show. Do you think Celine Tam has what it takes to win World's Got Talent? Let us know in the comments below and thank you for watching.