Kodi Lee

Kodi Taehyun Lee (born July 7, 1996) is a Korean-American singer-songwriter and pianist. He rose to fame after participating in and winning the 14th season of the reality competition show America's Got Talent.

In 2019, Lee auditioned for the fourteenth season of America's Got Talent and within two weeks, the video had over 50 million views on the internet.^[1] At the end of the season, he was declared the winner.^[2]

Early life[]

He was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, causing him to become legally blind. He was also diagnosed with autism at an early age and has Addison's disease.^[3] Kodi is a prodigious musical savant – that is, a person who manifests musical abilities that would be considered extraordinary even in a person who is not autistic.^[4]

America's Got Talent[]

On May 28, 2019, Kodi Lee auditioned for America's Got Talent performing Leon Russell's "A Song For You". Judges Gabrielle Union, Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell and Julianne Hough gave him a standing ovation at the end of the performance. Union pressed the golden buzzer for him, sending him straight through to the live shows of the program.^[5] At the quarterfinals, Lee performed Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water," again to a standing ovation, and advanced to the semifinals. For the semifinals, Lee performed "You Are the Reason" by Calum Scott. During the results, he was announced as one of the ten finalists for the season. In the finals, he performed "Lost Without You" by Freya Ridings. In the finale that aired on September 18, 2019, he performed "You Are the Reason" again, but with special guest Leona Lewis. At the end of the program, Lee was announced as the winner of season 14, having received the most votes, making him the first autistic person to win "America's Got Talent".^[6]

References[]