The world has come to know Tyler Butler-Figueroa, 11, as the young violinist who made Simon Cowell hit the rare "Golden Buzzer" on America's Got Talent.
Butler-Figueroa, a fifth grader at Walnut Creek Elementary in Raleigh, left judges and his audience speechless after his June 11 audition. A video of his performance already has 18 million views on YouTube.
Before Butler-Figueroa's rise to fame, though, his friends and family at home in Raleigh knew him as the boy who played his violin just about anywhere.
Butler-Figueroa said he took various gigs and performed in the street to raise money to go to Charlotte for the much-anticipated AGT audition. Using his street performing permit, he performs often on what he calls his "main block," or Davie Street in front of the Red Hat building.
"I had a dream of being on it, but I never thought it would come a reality," he said. "I just really like playing the violin."
Butler-Figueroa and his mom, a single mother, worked together to raise the $2,000 to get him to the audition.
At just the age of 11, so much has already happened to the young violinist. He was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of four and battled it for three years. He said kids bullied him -- even spreading rumors that he was contagious.
Triumphing over cancer and bullies with his violin, Raleigh boy gets Golden Buzzer on America's Got Talent
"My hair was coming out, and so kids would make fun of me, and it just made me feel really sad," Butler-Figueroa said. "But ever since I started playing the violin, things have changed."
Butler-Figueroa started playing the violin when he turned 7. Even though he was cancer-free, he was waiting to have one final surgery and couldn't yet play contact sports with his friends.
His interest in the instrument started when Butler-Figueroa saw a flier at his school for free violin lessons with Kidznotes. His mom bought him a $30 violin on Ebay and, as it turned out, he was a natural.
"In a pop song, I like to dance and play the violin, and I try and give a show," Butler-Figueroa said. "And if it's like an emotional song or inspirational, I like to add notes that make it dramatic ... so it can make the people cry."
Sure enough, Butler-Figueroa left just about everyone crying at his America's Got Talent audition – including the judges and, especially, his mom. When Cowell hit the Golden Buzzer, indicating that the young violinist would advance right to the live rounds in August, his mom was in awe.
Raleigh boy turns heads on America's Got Talent
"To see him walk out on that stage in front of those judges, I was standing there trembling, sweating, crying ... what they call a hot mess," said his mom, Kisua Butler-Figueroa. "That was me, I was a mess."
As she watched her son perform, she thought back to him nearly dying and all his hard work to get to this point.
"Oh, every time I see it I just break down and cry," she said. "Because it's been a rough road, but I'm starting to see the clouds are fading away. It's like the sun is coming out."
Before the audition, young Butler-Figueroa didn't think he'd be nervous, but his emotions surprised him.
"All of a sudden, I just felt emotions coming to me, and so I started crying a little bit," he said. "But I gave it my all."
When Simon Cowell asked him how he was feeling after his performance, the boy responded, "I'm feeling really proud of myself."
In an interview with WRAL, Butler-Figueroa and his mother described the moment as "a dream come true."
"It was very emotional to see that I've been doing all this hard work and now I've made it," he said. "And now I just need to practice even harder to maybe even try and win it."
Butler-Figueroa also hopes his success sends a message to bullies and to people being bullied.
"Even if you are being bullied, you should not let that affect what you want to do in your life," he said. "Now almost nobody is being mean or hateful, they're all just proud of me."
Butler-Figueroa's inspirational story has a wide reach, and people across the Triangle and all over the country are rooting for him.
When Barbara Goodmon of the Capitol Broadcasting family saw Butler-Figueroa playing his violin on the street in Raleigh earlier this month, she worked with the AJ Fletcher Foundation to buy him a new violin – the one he uses on the show now.
Butler-Figueroa will graduate from elementary school later in June and will spend his summer working on his live performance for August – which he said may include a hoverboard or a piano.
America's Got Talent airs on WRAL-TV at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
