When 13-year-old Courtney Hadwin walked onto the America’s Got Talent stage, she looked painfully shy. She spoke softly, avoided eye contact, and told the judges she was a nervous schoolgirl from a small town in England. No one in the room was expecting what was about to happen next.
Then the band kicked into “Hard to Handle” by Otis Redding, and Courtney transformed in an instant. The timid teen vanished; in her place was a full-throttle rock singer, stomping across the stage with wild, jerky dance moves and a raw, raspy voice that felt straight out of the late ’60s. The crowd went from polite curiosity to roaring cheers in a matter of seconds.
The judges were just as stunned. Simon Cowell told her she was “like a lion” when she sang, while Howie Mandel compared her to a young Janis Joplin discovered for the first time. Overwhelmed by the sheer power and originality of her performance, Howie slammed the Golden Buzzer, sending Courtney straight to the live shows as gold confetti rained down and the audience lost its mind.
Her audition went on to rack up tens of millions of views online and is still considered one of the most explosive Golden Buzzer moments in AGT history — proof that sometimes the quietest kid in the room is actually the loudest rock star waiting to be unleashed.
