Watch the Benn Family Band Perform 'I Won't Give Up' on America's Got Talent
Terry Crews (left) with Loren Benn (right) and the Benn Family Band after their quarterfinals performance.
Image by Trae Patton/NBC
On Tuesday, America's Got Talent (AGT) season 20 continued with live shows broadcast from Pasadena Civic Auditorium. On stage was Loren Benn, assistant professor in the ensemble and voice departments, with her mom and three of her six siblings. The family, who are survivors of January's devastating Eton fires, stood where Benn graduated high school and just a short distance from where the family's Altadena home burned down.
The result was an emotional rendition of the Jason Mraz song, "I Won't Give Up," which took on new meaning sung by the family that's been through so much.
Watch the Benn Family Band's performance of "I Won't Give Up" on America's Got Talent:
"My dad worked here [at the Civic Auditorium] for many years as a night shift security guard," Benn told Berklee Now in between filming on Wednesday. Host Terry Crews asked her mom what that feeling was like. "It's a full circle moment," she said. "He did dream of us performing here. We just want everyone to know that your dreams can come true."
Benn recounted what it was like to get asked to participate in this season of AGT. She was initially hesitant to agree so soon after the fires, but the producers agreed to make this story "bigger than us."
"I don't want it to be just about what we've gone through, and I don't want us to be the family that's up there for the story alone, but for our talent, too. And they were able to find a way to strike that balance." And her family, who aren't professional musicians, wanted to do it.
"Their strength was [admirable] to me, because in the middle of tragedy, they were wanting to participate in something so big. . . . There are thousands of families that we represent; it's not just us."
The Benn Family Band during their America's Got Talent audition.
Image by Trae Patton/NBC
Benn recalled that even before their audition performance, her family clad in donated clothes, the entire room of people and judges gave them a standing ovation. "That instantly made this the most meaningful thing that we could ever do."
If there's anything AGT taught Benn that she'll be passing along to her students, it's to "use it."
"Use what you're coming with. Put it somewhere into your art, into your performance, into how you show up. Don't be afraid to show up vulnerably in those spaces, because that's how you communicate with the world. I've learned from this process that even in my tragedy, I can use that and do something with it for the art that I'm trying to put out."