Michigan’s own Funkateer Dancers are headed to the quarterfinals of “America’s Got Talent” after receiving a surprise golden buzzer from Flint native Terry Crews during the fourth audition episode of the show’s 20th season.
Gold confetti rained down on Ed Miller, Mike Kelly, Jeff Healey and Tony Warren as the crowd roared — a showstopping moment for a crew that originally formed 45 years ago for a high school talent show.
The Funkateer Dancers — a group with deep Detroit roots and old-school funk moves — opened the Tuesday, June 17, episode and brought judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara and Mel B to their feet with their signature routine, The Funkateer.
Crews, host of the NBC competition show, was especially impressed, sneaking up behind the celebrity panel and smashing the golden buzzer.
“That was supposed to be mine!” Cowell shouted at Crews. “I was going to do it.”
“These are my people!” Crews responded before running onto the stage to hug the dancers.
Each judge, and the host, may hit the golden buzzer just twice this season, sending an act straight to the live rounds and skipping intermediate eliminations. Live shows are set to begin in August, with viewers voting to determine who advances.
The Inkster-based dance group was Crews’ first golden buzzer of the season. The performance shows “that age ain’t nothing but a number,” the host told the audience.
The Funkateer Dancers, also known as the Funkateers, first formed in 1980 to perform in a talent show at Inkster High School, which they won. They went on to perform in local theaters and at summer concerts, and soon became regulars on “The Scene,” a beloved Detroit TV dance show that aired nightly through the late 1980s.
The group helped shape the Motor City’s dance scene by popularizing a unique funk style that blends jit, popping and locking. Their choreography played a key role in defining the region’s vibrant street dance culture and influencing generations of dancers in Detroit and surrounding areas.
Two original members, Tony Lacey and DeA’mon Ellerson, died in 2024 and 2022, respectively.
After three decades out of the limelight, the remaining dancers reunited in 2019 and did not miss a beat.
“When we got back together, it was just like riding a bike. It didn’t take no more than about five or 10 minutes for us to do what we do,” Miller, 66, told the Free Press in a June 16 interview, ahead of the audition’s broadcast. “Being able to (dance) at the age that we are, and we can still do it at a high level — it’s wonderful.”
Kelly, 64, echoed the sentiment, saying the group isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
“The goal is to, of course, win ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and go wherever that takes us from,” he said. “We told ourselves that we got three to five more years left in us to go ahead and do this thing for real, wherever it’s going to take us.”
While they’re focused on the competition, the Funkateer Dancers are already dreaming of the next thing.
“We still got a lot in the tank,” Kelly said, adding they hope to book commercials and tour with artists in the future.
The winner of “America’s Got Talent” receives a $1 million prize, paid out as a financial annuity over 40 years, unless the contestant opts for the present cash value instead, according to a statement in the show’s credits. In past seasons, the lump sum has been reported to be significantly less than $1 million.
Nour Rahal is a trending and breaking news reporter. Email her: nrahal@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @nrahal1.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Inkster’s Funkateer Dancers get golden buzzer from Terry Crews on ‘America’s Got Talent’
Reporting by Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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