It’s not every day that singers and songwriters get to visit the home of Simon Cowell, one of the best known judges of “America’s Got Talent.” But that is exactly what happened for Nyjah Music and Zyah Rhythm, the North Shore brothers competing in Season 21 of the television show, who were invited to film a judges callback round at Cowell’s house in Malibu, California.
The round, which is new this season, allows each judge to pick acts to audition a second time before a panel decides who will advance to live shows. Watch the episode at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time, which is 2 p.m. in Hawai’i, on Tuesday, Aug. 4, on NBC, to see if the brothers advance. The episode will also be available on Peacock the next day.
Here is an exclusive clip of Cowell giving the brothers feedback.
Getting an invite to the judges callback round from Cowell, who is known for being a tough judge, meant a lot to the duo.
“We were pretty stoked,” Nyjah told Aloha State Daily. “Just being there was amazing.”
He was like an uncle, Zyah added.
“So I actually would have thought that Simon would be hard on us, just because of the videos and stuff,” he said. “He has turned down some people. But just going to his house, he made it feel like he was more of an uncle to us. It was super chill. He was super inviting and super open with his house. He told us we could jump in his pool, if we wanted.”
They did not in fact jump in the pool. They did not have swimsuits, Zyah added.
Currently, Nyjah Music and Zyah Rhythm have more than 250,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Last year, their cover of “Burning Love,” which was produced by their uncle, Bruno Mars, was featured in Disney’s live action “Lilo & Stitch.” Today, that song has more than 13 million streams on Spotify.
But even with a hit like that, the auditions for “America’s Got Talent” had them nervous. Waiting backstage for their audition, which aired on Tuesday, June 9, on NBC, was “pretty nerve-wracking,” Zyah said.
“But then once we stepped on stage, we're pretty comfortable,” he added. “We did hear some people from Hawai’i in the audience. It got us pretty comfortable with the stage.”
By hearing Hawai’i, he means they heard a cheehoo.
Did they expect that? Zyah shook his head.
“It kind of shook the nerves away,” he said. “And it just showed that we have some people from home watching us.”
They performed their latest release, “Heartbeat,” an original single, which dropped on streaming platforms on June 15.
“It's really a universal song for people that want to show how much they love someone and how they want to be a part of someone because the lyrics are, ‘Can I be your heartbeat or the flower in your ear?’ and stuff like that,” Zyah said. “That person for us is our grandma. We dedicate it to our grandma, and it just shows how much we love our grandma, how she started it all, but she did pass away when we were little. But yeah, it's just about our grandma.”
After being off Island, Nyjah and Zyah look forward to local foods. For Nyjah, that usually involves a poke bowl at Foodland, with iced tea on the side. After flying in, Zyah likes to stop at Zippy’s Restaurants, where he orders chili and rice.
Follow the brothers on Instagram, YouTube and Spotify.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
