This 13-year-old slayed the 'America's Got Talent' judges with a Janis Joplin-like performance

What's one way to show you've cleaned up on America's Got Talent? A confetti shower. Singer Courtney Hadwin experienced the gilded swarm that results from getting the golden buzzer during her audition that aired Tuesday.

It would've been hard to predict the 13-year-old would receive the honor when she first took the stage, admittedly "a little bit nervous" and stumbling through questions from judge Mel B. But as soon as the music of the Black Crow's Hard to Handle began, Hadwin transformed into an uninhabited singer with stage presence and confidence in her dance moves.

Judge Simon Cowell marveled at the metamorphosis. "You were this shy little thing when you first came out," he said, "and then you sing and you're like a lion. Genuinely incredible."

Howie Mandel remarked Hadwin was from a different time. “You’re from a whole different era," he said.

Mandel added that he was a big fan of Janis Joplin's and referenced a story he learned from a documentary: "Clive Davis, he goes to the Monterey Pop Festival, and he sees this young girl that nobody has ever seen before, that nobody knows," he said. "It was the first time Janis Joplin got signed, and that changed her life."

Mandel acknowledged his short-comings in that he couldn't sign Hadwin, but he did offer her the next best thing: the golden buzzer, which sends her to the live shows.

Hadwin, in disbelief, began to cry as gold confetti fell around her. The former competitor on The Voice Kids in the U.K., articulated her emotions Tuesday night on Twitter.

"I didn't know what to expect when I auditioned for @AGT but the golden buzzer was more than I ever could have dreamed of," she wrote. "Thank you so much @howiemandel I am so happy and can't thank you enough xx"

America's Got Talent airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

WSBTV