Americas Got Talent audition for Singing Doctor airs after his death
Brandon Rogers always wanted to be a doctor and always loved to sing. The son of a minister, he grew up performing gospel with a church choir. So when he got to the University of Virginia on a scholarship, he majored in religious studies and prepared to apply to medical school.
By 29, he was an osteopathic physician practicing in Virginia's Hampton Roads area. And he had close to 95,000 followers on Instagram, where he was known for his videos as the "Singing Doctor," often donning his white lab coat, scrubs and stethoscope for selfies.
A luminous tenor, his rendition of a Boyz II Men song, "On Bended Knee," went viral online and caught the attention of the members of the singing troupe. So they invited him to perform alongside them for three nights at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Before he knew it, Rogers was called to audition for "America's Got Talent" in front of Simon Cowell, Mel B., Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel.
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But Rogers never lived to see his performance on television.
On June 11, he died after the car he was riding in crashed into a tree in Linthicum, Md. The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, the Rogers family said in an interview. A Maryland State Police spokesman said the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
On Tuesday night, the top-rated prime-time entertainment show on NBC premiered Rogers's audition tape, singing Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky." He received a standing ovation.
"There's something so special about your voice," Klum told Rogers.
"You are one of the best singers we've had on the competition so far, I've got to tell you," Cowell said.
The judges then voted unanimously to send Rogers to the next round.
After receiving permission from the Rogers family, the show aired the audition in remembrance of his performance, ending with the words, "Thank you for sharing your talent."
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"My baby got to become the doctor that he wanted to be as well as enjoy singing, which was a passion," said his mother, Carmelita Rogers. "I'm grateful for that."
His father, Danni Rogers, said that in the month since their son's death, the family has received an outpouring of support.
They've learned, he said, "How much he's touched America."
Rogers, born Oct. 30, 1987, in Portsmouth, Va., was the second of three children. He was prom king before enrolling at the University of Virginia. He sang with an a cappella group and the Black Voices gospel choir and worked to keep his grade-point average high, his family said.
His goal was to apply to medical school, his father said. He was accepted and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. His inspiration to pursue a career in medicine came at a young age, when he came home one day to find his mother collapsed on the floor, barely conscious. Thinking quickly, the boy called a family friend, who helped get his mother to a hospital.
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"My inspiration for becoming a doctor was kind of born out of a pretty tough experience when I was about 6 years old," Rogers said in a segment aired on "America's Got Talent." "The doctors were like heroes, they saved her life. And it made me want to be the doctor that I am today."
As a physician doing rounds, his mother said, Rogers was known to cope with stress by singing to himself to help calm his nerves.
"He would just sing, and it helped him out a lot," she said.
At the time of his death, Rogers was a resident at Riverside Brentwood Medical Center in Newport News, Va.
His mother said that the family gathered to watch the segment featuring Rogers.
"The tribute was beyond beautiful," his mother said. "They did a wonderful job."
She was asked how to describe her son in a sentence, which she said was easy.
"He lived, he laughed and he loved," she said. "That was our Brandon."
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