Maya Neelakantan was a guitarist from Season 19 of America's Got Talent. She finished in the top 5 of her Quarterfinal week.
Background[]
Maya Neelakantan is from Chennai, India. She had previously performed for a small crowd of 50 people but aspired to perform for bigger crowds and release her own music. She had been playing guitar since the age of 6. Her father plays guitar as a hobby and he was instrumental in showing her how to teach herself how to play the guitar by watching videos on YouTube.
Maya’s inspirations are Adam Jones from Electric Sheep, Melvin’s, Puscifer and Tool and Gary Holt from both Exodus and Slayer.
Audition[]
Maya Neelakantan’s audition in Episode 1904 consisted of playing the guitar to Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”. All 4 judges voted "Yes", sending her to the next round.
Deliberations[]
Maya was selected to advance to the Quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals[]
Maya Neelakantan's Quarterfinal performance in Episode 1913 consisted of playing Metallica's "Master of Puppets" on the electric guitar, which was cleared by the band especially for her. At one point, she made the guitar sound like an Indian sitar. Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofía Vergara and Simon Cowell all gave her standing ovations. She received enough votes to enter the top 5 of the night in Episode 1914 instead of Menudo, but did not receive enough votes to advance to the Semifinals, eliminating her from the competition along with Journeyy instead of Reid Wilson, Kelsey Jane and Learnmore Jonasi.
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