Nene Royal Earns Mel B’s Golden Buzzer with Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’
Nene Royal followed her viral ‘Zombie’ audition with another demanding rock song in the quarterfinals of ‘America’s Got Talent.’ At 16, the Thai musician took on Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’ with her electric guitar in hand.
Viewers who had seen the audition already knew the combination she brought to the stage. This song gave her a different way to use her voice against the guitar.
‘Black Hole Sun’ has a darker, slower pull than many of the songs that appear on a competition stage. Royal’s arrangement leaves that mood in place while giving the later passages more force.
Her vocal stays close to the melody as the guitar part changes around it. The contrast makes the louder sections easy to hear as part of the same performance.
Mel B hit the Live Golden Buzzer. Confetti came down around Royal as the decision sent her through to the next round.
Watch the performance
The moment gives the clip two separate peaks. One comes from the slow build of the cover, and the other from what happens after the music stops.
More than 8.8 million views arrived within a week. The video reached people who had followed the audition and others who encountered this song first.
Royal had developed her approach to rock in Thailand. The competition gave her a stage where listeners could follow it across several different songs.
Putting ‘Black Hole Sun’ next to ‘Zombie’ makes that continuity clear. She changes the pace and the atmosphere while keeping the interplay of guitar and voice at the center.
The Golden Buzzer gave that work a clear point in the season’s story. Mel B’s response came after Royal had used a second performance to develop the sound viewers already knew.
Attention then shifted to what she might play in the remaining rounds. The quarterfinal showed how much range she could find within material associated with grunge.
Listen for the points where the guitar takes over a line from the voice. Royal gives the instrumental phrases enough room to become part of the arrangement’s movement.
After the buzzer, she fell to her knees and cried. It is a brief view of what the decision meant to a performer still in the middle of the competition.
Her stage identity continued to take shape across the season. ‘Black Hole Sun’ is one of the clearest examples of how she used a recognizable song without losing her own musical priorities.
The quarterfinal also sets up the move to the heavier sound she took into the final. The guitar was already doing much of the work of making that change possible.
The other recordings below show where the approach began and where it led. The three songs give the same performer very different melodies and dynamics to handle.
Two more performances to explore
16-Year-Old Nene Royal Is Shy… Until She Starts Singing "Zombie" | Auditions | AGT
‘Zombie’ was the audition that introduced Royal to the show. It puts her guitar and singing together in a performance with a different kind of tension.
Nene Royal Goes FULL ROCKSTAR With “Seven Nation Army” By The White Stripes | The Final | AGT 2026
Her final cover of ‘Seven Nation Army’ builds around a riff known from the first few notes. It shows how Royal brought the same guitar-led approach into the last round.
