America's Got Talent winner Darci Lynne bringing her singing puppets to Brown County
Aw, shucks, shyness can be an asset. For instance, shy people tend to spend time alone, and that's where creativity can fire. In 2018 ventriloquist/singer Darci Lynne embarked on her family-friendly national tour. In six minutes, all tickets were sold. She added more shows.
Lynne is one of the youngest people ever to win TV's grandest talent show, NBC's America's Got Talent, taking the 2017 title at age 12. She and her puppets are stopping at Brown County Music Center in Nashville on May 6.
One reason she auditioned for America's Got Talent springs from her introversion.
"I grew up painfully shy. My parents were actually a little worried about me," she said over the phone. "They put me in beauty pageants so I could meet other girls and make friends." One of those other girls used ventriloquism in her act; Lynne liked it. She taught herself, using YouTube videos of Shari Lewis as a guide. Lewis was an American puppeteer, ventriloquist and TV show host. She gained fame as the original puppeteer of the sock puppet Lamb Chop, first appearing on the "Captain Kangaroo" children's show in 1956.
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Today, Lynne is 17 and has been touring with her singing puppets for the past five years. Her fuzzy family consists of five, plus Lynne herself, and "there's a piece of me" in each puppet.
What she loves is that her shows are multi-generational, with many music genres. Some of her songs are covers; some she has written.
George Gershwin's "Summertime" (1934) is the song Lynne used for her America's Got Talent audition. At the piece's finale, the notes waft up up up, then descend into a soprano's bottom notes. In the YouTube video one judge in particular wrestles with tears. Lynne wrestles, too, but her ventriloquist's lips remain stationary.
"It was a shock to win. I never thought people would be as interested in ventriloquism as I am," she said.
Lynne has grabbed more than 87 million views on America's Got Talent's YouTube, and she received the most votes for a final performance in the show's history.
Last year she starred in Nickelodeon’s hit show “Unfiltered,” which was renewed for a second season. She has also appeared in Nickelodeon favorites such as “All That,” “The Substitute” and “Side Hustle.”
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Social media is her pal; more than 864,000 people follow her on Instagram, and her TikTok profile has more than 2.4 million followers and 42.4 million likes.
She also is in a movie that came out April 22, "A Cowgirl's Song." The coming-of-age drama is about an aspiring but unmoored teenaged singer, played by Savannah Lee May. Lynne plays her sister. May's character stays with her grandmother, a past country music star. The grandmother is facing misfortune, and together they use music to find relief. Cheryl Ladd also stars, with original music by Maggie McClure and Shane Henry. But Lynne, too, wrote a song for the soundtrack.
Despite TikTok, America's Got Talent and a movie, Lynne remains an introvert. But never while under the lights. There, she is total an extrovert.
If you go
WHAT: Darci Lynne's "My Lips Are Sealed (Except When They’re Not)," singing ventriloquism.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. May 6.
WHERE: Brown County Music Center, 200 Maple Leaf Blvd., Nashville, 812-988-5323, browncountymusiccenter.com, County Music Center.
TICKETS: $34-$131 at https://bit.ly/3vysNR1. No health check required. VIP tickets available.