Teenager Keren Montero is from Santo Domingo, the capital of The Dominican Republic. In 2021 she participated in the second series of Dominica Got Talent. For her audition on DGT, Montero sang Rise Up by Andra Day. DGT judge Nashla Bogaert rewarded Montero with her golden buzzer, making Montero the first contestant on the 2nd series to win the golden buzzer. Montero went on to win the competition.
As a result of winning DGT 2021, Keren Montero was enabled to enter AGT: All-Stars 2023. When she appeared on AGT-All Stars in January 2023, Montero was 17-years-old. As NBC observes, “When Montero stepped onstage, she had a shy demeanour. But that shyness dissolved when she started singing.” For her AGT-All Stars appearance, Montero selected Rescue by Lauren Daigle. Take a listen.
When the video (which now has over 7M views) was posted, Montero received a lot of support from AGT-All Stars viewers. betha.6279 captures the tenor of these comments “I love so many things about this 17 year old. She dresses in a classy modest way that helps you focus on her voice. Her voice is pure and unique. She’s not trying to be like anyone else. Her music comes from her soul. I love the song she chose. It’s perfect for voice. You can tell she feels what she sings. She is a STAR”.
Superfans voted Keren Montero into 3rd place of the night’s performers, which eliminated her from the competition. In this regard Simon Cowell’s advice (for which he was booed by the live audience) was perceptive. In a nutshell, he advised Montero to find a song & make it into her individual version. He liked her singing, he said, but there are times “you’ve got to do something no one’s ever done before”. To my mind, she should have done sung Se Va El Temor, the single released after her DGT win
Now that’s a song on which Keren Montero plays to her strengths! It’s a religious song, as is her bent, but it sounds great and she comes across as a full fledged artist, not a young aspirant performer. Perhaps she felt that she needed an English-language song for AGT-All Stars 2023. Never mind. Montero is young and she is already a big deal in the Dominican Republic.
In her introductory comments on AGT-All Stars 2023, Montero said that she knows that she is a celebrity in her home country. She’s been in commercials, on TV shows, and she even had the opportunity to sing in front of the President of Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader. Montero also said that AGT-All Stars was a chance to let the world know who she is. She may not have won the competition, but the video of her singing Rescue has over 7M views, she is continuing to release new music, and she is being profiled on The Music Man.
While Keren Montero has dreams of a career in music, it was in her local church choir, where she started singing as a child, that she found her love for singing. She remains active in the church. She also works with Voy a Ser Grande, a foundation headed by Tony López which develops young people through music training and other social assistance. If you would like to see more from Keren Montero, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel or follow her on Instagram.