There wasn’t a dry eye left in the room when Sky Elements presented their drone show on Wednesday’s America’s Got Talent semifinal. Even Simon Cowell was at a loss for words after witnessing the stunning and surprisingly emotional light display, dedicated to the late daughters of one of the group’s members.
The skies lit up with thousands of drones depicting imagery of a father and his daughter playing, right before the young girl turns into a butterfly and flies away. The performance was aptly scored by Lily Meola’s song, “Butterfly.” Sky Elements’ member Preston Ward later revealed the presentation was a tribute to his daughter Briley. The soaring ending showed the father figure turning into a phoenix, reflecting Preston’s attitude towards the devastating loss.
“Grief is like a fire… you can let it consume you and burn you down, or you can let it fuel you,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram where he thanked AGT and its viewers for the support. “I can’t thank you enough for this. And I’m looking at your family members… There isn’t an act that just moves your heart this much, and you just broke us,” Howie Mandel emotionally praised.
Ward is Sky Elements’ chief pilot and leads business development, training, communication, and operations in the Dallas, Texas company, which received a golden buzzer from Simon Cowell during the audition stage for AGT‘s 19th season after they recreated the moon landing and the infamous judge’s grinning face over an astronaut costume with the flying objects. They did the same for fellow judges Mandel, Sofia Vergara, and Heidi Klum, as well as host Terry Crews, in their fun fair-inspired quarter-finals production.
How did Sky Elements member Preston Ward’s daughter die?
Briley Rose Ward died in 2020 soon after her birth. In a heartbreaking video released on the occasion of Infant Loss Awareness Month in 2023, dad Preston and mom Tara spoke about their experience with that kind of overwhelming grief. Tara was in the hospital for four weeks before she went into labor. Briley was born premature and died no more than two hours later. The couple didn’t specify their daughter’s condition.
AGT isn’t the first time the Wards and Sky Elements mark their presence in a reality television competition. In 2023, they won ABC’s Great Christmas Light Fight, donating the $50,000 prize money to the child bereavement support nonprofit organization Dallas Hope Mommies. “We said we would put up lights at our house when we had children. After we lost Briley, we decided to still put them up like we had planned for her first Christmas. So this show is in honor of her,” Preston confessed.
The AGT finale will take place Tuesday, Sept. 17, on NBC, with results being revealed a week later. In a talent-packed upcoming episode with the likes of Japanese acrobatic act AIRFOOTWORKS, Australian dance group Brent Street, and dog act Roni Sagi & Rhythm providing plenty of competition, Sky Elements is still the favorite to win.
Published: Sep 13, 2024 07:18 am