Glen Head dancer Lambros Garcia, 10, learns his fate on 'America's Got Talent'
This story contains spoilers.
Ten-year-old dancer Lambros Garcia of Glen Head, who returned to compete on Tuesday’s live show on “America’s Got Talent,” found out his fate on Wednesday’s results show.
Lambros, who was paired up with singer Lavender Darcangelo onstage, did not advance to the show's next round. After viewer votes were tabulated, Darcangelo’s version of the Foreigner hit “I Want To Know What Love Is” a day earlier proved the higher-tallied of the two acts.
On Tuesday, Lambros had impressed all four judges with his moves to Todrick Hall’s “Vogue Zone" in the first live shows of season 18.
Coming on as the initial act after the first commercial break that night, Lambros in an opening prerecorded segment said he is now “Lambros 2.0” following his audition on the June 6 episode, in which he executed a routine to Billy Porter’s “Love Yourself.” “I gained so much confidence,” the youngster explained. “The first day I came back to school, my [school] bus was cheering my name. … I finally have the confidence to show who I am.”
He chose Hall's hard-driving, up-tempo “Vogue Zone,” from the 2010 “American Idol” semifinalist's album, “Femuline” (2021), “because it has a good beat to it and it brings so much energy. And that's what I want to show: I want to show me.” The Glenwood Landing Elementary pupil went on to say, “My big dream is to perform on Broadway. This is my chance.”
Dressed in a silver-and-black bomber jacket and black pants, opening with his first name appearing as a stage backdrop in huge, neon-pink letters, the student at Mossa Dance Academy in New Hyde Park performed confident, acrobatic choreography with an array of vogue-dance hand gestures — earning across-the-board praise from the celebrity judges of NBC’s long-running variety-act competition.
“I love you and I love everything about you,” gushed supermodel Heidi Klum. “I love mostly that you do you and you don’t care about what anyone says. You don’t look back; you have your path. … Well done,” she added. “Congratulations. Ten years old on this biggest stage in the world.”
Echoed actor Sofía Vergara, “I love who you have become. You’re so confident tonight. You are amazing. My favorite part of your show is how happy you are when you’re doing it.” Lambros, who gave each judge profuse thank-yous, threw in a “¡Gracias!” to the Colombia-born “Modern Family” star. The Manhasset-born Lambros is of Latino ancestry via his parents: Christopher Garcia, a manager at the Garden City location of the nationwide financial firm Contour Mortgage, and Angela Scaliotis-Garcia, director of the English as a New Language and World Languages department of the Amityville Union Free School District.
Music mogul Simon Cowell noted that Lambros had said in his audition that he had been “a little bit bullied at school.” Asked Cowell, “And that’s gone away now, right?” “Totally,” the boy replied. “Good. Good, good, good,” said Cowell, “Because, let me tell you, we all loved you because you define the word personality.” He called Lambros' dancing “Brilliant. Great job.”
And the hugely enthusiastic comedian Howie Mandel told Lambros, “More than what you do, you are the same little boy that came to us before, who was bullied and had this tough time. And then you showed the world who you are. This is not Lambros 2.0. You changed the world. It’s the World 2.0!”
Responding to host Terry Crews asking what advice he had for other boys who love to dance, Lambros said, “As I stated in my first audition, not a lot of people respected who I am.” Taking a deep breath, he added, “However, we cannot let other people break our dreams. Because dreams do come true, right? They do!”