Alex Sampson on Taking the ‘America’s Got Talent’ Stage Tonight With a Song He Wrote Per Simon Cowell’s Advice

Canadian singer/songwriter Alex Sampson returns to the ‘AGT’ stage tonight with another retro original song.

Not everyone who gets four yeses from the America’s Got Talent judges makes it through to the Live Shows. In fact, maybe less than half survive the Judges Cuts, so when 20-year-old singer/songwriter Alex Sampson got word that he was going through to the Live Shows, he and his family celebrated.

What made Alex stand out from other singers who auditioned for Season 19 of AGT who didn’t make the cut was his original song, “Pretty Baby,” which took both judges Howie Mandel and Simon Cowell back to another era, the ‘50s or ‘60s.

At that time, Simon said, “If this is the lane you want to go down, I think it’s very smart because you separate yourself from what everybody else is doing. So, I really, really liked this audition.”

As a result, Alex, who had watched Simon as a judge on both The X-Factor and AGT, took the recommendation to heart and when he performs tonight he will be doing another original song that is an homage to that era of music.

“The song I’m singing on Tuesday is in that lane, and I plan to stay in that for my AGT run, as long as it lasts,” Alex told Parade in this exclusive interview. “Just from what Simon and Howie said, that they just love the style, and Simon thinks that if I stay in this lane, that I’ll be very successful and standout. I hope he likes it. I did write it just because they said that. I didn’t have any other songs like that, so I went home after my audition, and I made more.”

One of those songs was unveiled earlier this month when Alex dropped a new single entitled “If You Were My Girl,” which channels ‘50s doowop with breezy harmonies and loose guitar riffs — and could possibly be a sneak peek at what the Canadian singer will be performing tonight.