ATIKOKAN – The night of Tuesday, July 9, was a big one for Alex Sampson and his hometown.
Atikokan residents flocked to The Grill that evening for possibly the year’s biggest event in town: a watch party to see the local singer wow the judges on America’s Got Talent.
“That was so good,” judge Simon Cowell said immediately after Sampson performed “Pretty Baby,” an original ballad with a late-1950s vibe.
The crowd at The Grill cheered as Sampson, 20, got the judges’ unanimous approval to move on to the next round in the popular NBC competition program.
“It was crazy,” Sampson recalled a week after the watch party.
“You know, the entire town pretty much came. It was amazing.”
Sampson said he was “very grateful” that the restaurant turned its space into a venue for sharing the experience with other Atikokan residents.
“And it was so awesome to just see the hometown support – because no matter what, I can always rely on my hometown,” he said in an interview at the Sampson family home.
“Ever since I started in music, they’ve just been my rock and this place has been a rock.”
That moment – the airing of his audition and the accompanying local celebration – was many months in the making, he explained.
Sampson made a preliminary audition for AGT last fall; the performance on the big stage, in front of Cowell and the other judges, was recorded in March.
The young vocalist’s music career is many, many years in the making, according to his father.
Darren Sampson said Alex “always has been singing,” even as a small child.
“He’s been many years at this,” said Darren. “He’s got a lot of songs in the vault that are going to be coming out eventually.”
Alex described music as “my passion. It’s not only my job.”
He said music “can get me out of my sadness, even if for two or three minutes. If I can do that for someone else, that’s great.”
Sampson has been uploading his vocal prowess onto YouTube for several years, and he has 3.6 million followers on TikTok as well as active and popular Instagram and Spotify accounts.
He said “Pretty Baby,” which he wrote and recorded with Montreal-based producer John Nathaniel (who has won awards for his work with OneRepublic and Shawn Mendes), will have a place on an upcoming EP.
America’s Got Talent’s 19th season continues with more auditions next Tuesday. The live “qualifier” rounds, which will include Sampson at some point, are scheduled to start Aug. 22.
