First he serenaded his Lyft passengers, then came Simon Cowell on ‘AGT’
Mamma Mia! Carlos De Antonis is a Lyft driver to remember.
And not for his clean car, bottles of water and free phone chargers.
The man can sing.
De Antonis appeared on “America’s Got Talent” the other night. And even though he looked as if he was still dressed in his work attire — a black T shirt, black hoodie, black jeans and sunglasses propped above his head — he came ready to impress.
The Miami resident first got the niceties out of the way, telling the four judges, Heidi Klum Simon Cowell, Mel B and Howie Mandel —that he was from Miami and often sang to his passengers, one who suggested he appear on the NBC reality competition.
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The Argentine tenor sang his rendition of the classic aria “Nessun Dorma” (“No One Sleeps”), from Puccini‘s Turandot .
“An opera singing taxi driver!” screamed host Tyra Banks.
The judges were all wowed, telling the emotional contestant he sang with his heart.
“You sing with such passion that comes right from the depth and you just spread it all out,” gushed former Spice Girl Mel B. “It was brilliant!”
After receiving four resounding “yeses,” De Antonis automatically moved onto the next round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwgv3MiH3xM
Full disclosure: De Antonis, according to his Wikipedia page, is actually a professional opera singer who sang with prestigious maestros at respected venues in Latin America and Europe. He has an album called “Del Cuore,” put out by Capitol Records.
It is unclear why he is driving cars these days as his career updates stop suddenly at the year 2007, the year his debut record came out.
But in a YouTube interview from 2015 he explains that he was in an accident which severely injured his two legs and the recovery was tough.
“Never give up,” he says in the video.
This story was originally published July 3, 2017 at 1:07 AM with the headline "First he serenaded his Lyft passengers, then came Simon Cowell on ‘AGT’."