By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
The secret was out — and the whole world was in on it.
Before an international audience in July, the Birmingham Youth and Young Adult Fellowship Choir (BYYAFC) won the “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) Golden Buzzer — which allows a participant to skip the rest of the judged rounds and go straight to the fan-voted quarterfinals. The choir will return for the next round of NBC’s televised talent show in September.
The group’s audition was taped in March, and since then “we’ve been holding in this big secret,” Choir Director Ahkeem Lee told a video team from Birmingham City Schools (BCS), of which he is a graduate.
But now that the surprise is out, Lee is pleased by what the performance and response meant for his hometown.
“We didn’t just go up on the show and sing, we wanted to represent where we were from,” he told The Birmingham Times. “We wanted to show that there are young people in the city doing positive things, and we made sure to highlight our city.”
That’s why the choir chose “an inspirational message,” he said of their performance, which was a mashup of the traditional “Hymn of Joy” (also called “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”) and Pharrell and Voice of Fire’s modern 2023 spin on the track “Joy (Unspeakable).”
“We sang ‘Joy,’ and that was exactly what we were intending to do — spread joy,” Lee said. “There’s just so much that goes on in the world right now. … We wanted the opportunity to really show something good because it could spread joy in the hearts of people.”
On August 24 at the Heights Event & Entertainment Center, the choir, which has 41 members ranging in age from 9 to 29, will hold a Raise the Praise event that will feature guest artists, vendors, and a special performance from the choir, as it continues to raise funds to support the journey back to California for “AGT: Season 20” live shows next month with the finale September 23 and 24..
International recognition couldn’t have come at a better time for the group, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
“Ten years ago, we never thought we would see the day where we would be here,” Lee said during a concert at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where he is a member. “It’s been a tough 10 years, but it has also been a great decade of praise, of dedication, of love, of faithfulness.”
The director said he was pleased that several choir members attend BCS, which opened for the fall semester last week.
“It’s amazing to give [students] an opportunity to get outside of Birmingham and go to California. A lot of them had never left state of Alabama, and even if they had left the state they had never been to California, so it was a very unique experience for them,” said Lee, a 2015 Ramsay High School grad. “Just giving them the opportunity to be exposed [to the travel] was quite incredible.”
Braylen Malone, who attends Huffman High School and has been a member of BYYAFC for the past eight years, said he always watches AGT, and it took a while to process what the group was able to accomplish.
“I was like, ‘I’ll never be on that show ever in my life. … Who I look like going out there doing it?’ And it’s crazy! I did it, and it was like, ‘What? … I was just watching it, but now it’s me.’”
Payton Marbury, who attends W.J. Christian K-8 School, said, “It was crazy. Like, I always dreamed about being on [AGT]. I was nervous because I was the first person to come out. … I’d never sang in front of thousands of people, so it was different, but it was exciting because it was a new journey for us.”
Untapped, Unrecognized Talent
The BYYAFC has always been blessed to find skilled members, Lee said.
“It could be something as simple as someone may see us on social media, reach out, and inquire about how to join. Or, over time, I’ve met people like the original choir, which came from personal connections. We didn’t make a clarion call to anyone. It was simply, ‘Hey, do you have church members who want to be a part of this?’ ‘Hey, do your classmates want to be part of this?’ We were just blessed to have those types of people,” Lee said.
But that has now changed.
“Up until 2024 we didn’t do any auditions. We would let any choir member or young person who wanted to be part of the choir join. If you had a voice, you wanted to sing, and you wanted to be a part of something great, we’d let anybody in.”
Now, Lee added, “you have to have the ability to stay in a choir. You don’t have to be a soloist, but you’ve got to be able to hold a note. Yes, there’s a lot of untapped and unrecognized talent in the city, and my prayer and hope is that this choir will provide a platform for other young people to be part of something great, … to be exposed to things they wouldn’t get an opportunity to experience if they hadn’t been in the choir.”
Live Shows
Before appearing on AGT, the BYYAFC rehearsed once a week, alternating between Wednesdays and Sundays. Since March, that’s increased to twice a week on those days.
“I noticed that with us having two hours of the week, we’ve been able to learn more music and the choir members’ voices have become stronger and more mature,” said Lee, also assistant director of student engagement and enrichment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). “We have more time we can dedicate to truly developing their voices. … We rehearse twice a week: for about an hour on Wednesdays and a half to two hours on Sundays.”
And there’s more than just music.
“We try to make sure the young people have fun, too, so I try to give them a break to interact, talk to each other. … We sometimes do youth development workshops to give [choir members] an opportunity to talk about some of the things they have going on in school—peer pressure and things like that. I believe that a big component of growth in the choir goes along with how we help them develop outside the choir,” said Lee, adding that the choir has helped him grow as well.
“I always tell people that the choir has helped me to grow as a person,” he said. “Being responsible for a group of young people at the age of 18, 19 years old when the choir started was hard work. … It required a lot of maturity, and it required a lot to develop. The choir forced me to become a leader very fast. I had to learn how to network very quickly. I had to learn how to communicate effectively. I couldn’t be a traditional college student with a choir.”
For viewers and fans who were impressed by what they saw from BYYAFC in July, wait until September, Lee said.
“These would be live shows, so its not a pre-taped audition. … I’ll definitely say we’re going a little harder, putting more effort into the process, more energy. … If everyone enjoyed what they saw most recently, they’re definitely going to enjoy what they’re going to see in the fall.”
To learn more about the choir and donate, visit here.
