By Dan McGrath

If Simon Cowell likes you, you can be sure your act is pretty solid.

Throughout the world-renowned Leo Choir’s electrifying run to the final round of “America’s Got Talent,” the notoriously acerbic Judge Cowell became one of Leo’s most ardent supporters. He lavished praise on retiring Choir Director LaDonna Hill for the energy and passion she brought to her work, which Choir members picked up on and applied to every performance of every song. They left a lasting impression on all who saw them, live or on the NBC telecasts.

The run ended on Wednesday, September 24, one day after the Choir’s final-round rendition of “Hall of Fame,” by Irish band The Script, vaulted them into AGT’s top 10. Overnight viewer-preference voting would then determine the grand-prize winner of $1 million.

With NBC’s national audience looking on, five acts were eliminated midway through Wednesday’s telecast. Leo survived.

After a sixth act, the LiveWire dance troupe, was dropped, Leo found itself head-to-head with freestyle rapper Chris Turner. Following a dramatic, drawn-out pause, AGT host Terry Crews delivered the news no one in Chicago wanted to hear: It was Turner who would be moving on. After a storybook run that brought national attention and admiration to a feisty little school on 79th Street, Leo placed fourth.

“If this were college basketball, we’d be celebrating,” School President Dan McGrath said. “Every team wants to go to the Final Four, every season, and we just did.

“And we’re going to celebrate anyway. We’re enormously proud of what the boys and Mrs. Hill accomplished, and how well they represented not just Leo but the entire city. Great experience for the boys, great exposure for our proud little school.”

Turner survived one more round, against singer Jourdan Blue, but went out in a final head-to-head matchup with singer Jessica Sanchez. Thirty years old and nine months’ pregnant with her first child, Sanchez was the ultimate people’s choice, walking off with the $1 million first prize 20 years after finishing second as a precocious 10-year-old during AGT’s first season.

“This has been an amazing experience,” Mrs. HIll told Terry Crews, demonstrating characteristic grace and composure. “I want to thank every educator, every parent … and most of all these boys. They poured their hearts into this.

“I’ve told them from the beginning: If you work hard and you believe in yourself, you never know what good things might happen.’”

Taking their cue from Mrs. Hill, Choir members tempered their disappointment with appreciation for what they had accomplished – not just on behalf of Leo, but Chicago.

“Where we come from, a lot of people don’t get opportunities like this,” said lead vocalist Keith Smith, who is headed for Columbia College on scholarship and intends to pursue a career in music.

“Choir is what kept me coming to school every day. We performed at a lot of places, we’ve been on national television … It’s been great. But we worked hard for this. We earned these opportunities.”

Simon Cowell said the Choir members should view themselves as role models for other Chicago youngsters.

“You are going to inspire so many people, and I really mean that,” he said. “You have talent, you have a great work ethic and a great mentor … It’s been a pleasure having you on our stage.”

It’s no exaggeration to say the entire city was behind the Choir. Rappers Common and Justus King sent video messages of encouragement, as did Kevin Byard and Rome Odunze of the Bears and actor LaRoyce Hawkins of Chicago PD. Cardinal Blase Cupich urged Chicago Catholics to get out the vote for Leo, and Mayor Brandon Johnson cited the Choir’s positive impact on the city.

“Watch parties” were held all over the South Side, including one at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park. At Leo’s Tuesday Watch Party, an elderly neighbor who lives down the street on Sangamon approached just as the doors were opening at 6:30 p.m.

“Can I come in?” she asked. “I want to watch, but it’s so exciting that I don’t want to watch by myself.”

She was welcomed into the Leo Auditorium, joining more than 100 other revelers who roared their approval at each Leo sighting and left convinced that a first-place finish was inevitable.

Maybe not, but perhaps something larger was achieved.

“We had a big platform to essentially change the narrative that not only Black people and Brown people get, but the entire City of Chicago gets,”
Choir member Steven Jackson said.

Jackson, a senior, his twin brother Stephan and their fellow seniors now inherit leadership of the Choir from Keith Smith, Ian Dunn, Joshua Smith, Jessie Howard and the other Class of 2025 graduates who are heading off to college after accomplishing so much.

“There’s more to us than what people may have seen or heard on the news,” Jackson said.

The news? Leo was a fixture on newscasts all week. A gaggle of reporters worthy of an indicted politician greeted the Choir when their return flight landed at O’Hare – WGN-TV described a “Chicago welcome” that saw total strangers approaching the boys and asking them to pose for pictures.

Reporters from five TV stations and two newspapers covered the Watch Party and visited the school at other times, including Thursday morning in the aftermath of the final AGT voting.

As CBS-2 conducted interviews outside the building, cars, trucks and buses traversing 79th Street tooted their horns or lowered their windows to acknowledge the Lions. A driver stopped his eastbound CTA bus in front of the building, opened the passenger door and shouted, “Way to go, Leo! Well done!”

Well done indeed.