Darci Lynne

Darci Lynne Farmer (born October 12, 2004)^[1] is an American ventriloquist and singer. Lynne has been credited with the revival of ventriloquism, earning praise and numerous accolades for her work.^[2][3]

Born in Oklahoma, Lynne developed interests in singing from a young age but was held back by her shyness before audiences. Inspired by performances by ventriloquists, including the performances of Terry Fator, she developed a talent for ventriloquism, combining this with her skill at singing when performing in a local talent competition with her first puppet in 2014. Her success led to her receiving coaching and assistance in developing her talent, allowing her to win additional talent competitions over the next two years.

Lynne came to national prominence when she appeared on Little Big Shots in 2016, but gained greater national recognition when she won the twelfth season of America's Got Talent the following year. Her success in that competition fully established her career in ventriloquism, with a number of experts deeming her performance and eventual success in the competition as an inspiration for future would-be ventriloquists. Following her involvement on America's Got Talent, she has made numerous appearances on television and held several tours with her puppet characters.

Life and career[]

Early years and ventures[]

Lynne lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She was born on October 12, 2004. Growing up, Lynne loved to sing, but she was shy and was afraid to perform in front of an audience.^[1][4] Her parents encouraged her to overcome her shyness by participating in the 2014 International Cinderella Scholarship Program where she was crowned International Mini Miss. At that pageant she also met International Teen titleholder, Laryssa Bonacquisti, a young ventriloquist who inspired her to try ventriloquism herself.^[5] She then asked her parents, Clarke and Misty Farmer, for a puppet, insisting that it would overcome her shyness. On her tenth birthday, her parents presented her with a puppet. Lynne's idol is past America's Got Talent winner Terry Fator.

In 2014, she entered Edmond's Got Talent where she won first prize after a month's preparation on Bonacquisti's tips. She was soon brought to the attention of ventriloquy coach Gary Owen, who was so impressed by Lynne's skill that he agreed to be her coach and business manager.^[6] Since then she has worked with Owen and vocal teacher Tiana Plemons.^[5] In 2015, she won first place in both the junior division at Oklahoma's Got Talent and Oklahoma Kids, and won Broadway, Specialty Acts, and overall Entertainer of the Year at American Kids in Branson, Missouri.^[7] In March 2016, Lynne made an appearance on Little Big Shots, performing "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" with her puppet, Katie the singing cowgirl,^[8] and in July 2016, she became the first child ventriloquist to perform at an evening show in the 40-year history of the Vent Haven International Ventriloquists' ConVENTion, where she fronted for celebrity ventriloquists Kevin Johnson and Todd Oliver.^[6] Then, in March 2017, she appeared on the British version of Little Big Shots, again performing "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" with Katie.^[8]

America's Got Talent[]

Lynne competed on the twelfth season of America's Got Talent in 2017. During the first episode broadcast on May 30, Lynne and her puppet, a sweet, girly bunny named Petunia, performed "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.^[9] The comedy–singing act featured Petunia cutting off Lynne so Petunia could continue singing instead. Judge Mel B praised the act and pressed her Golden Buzzer, allowing Lynne to bypass the judge cuts and go straight to the quarterfinals. The video of this performance became the most viewed video in the show's history within 30 hours of broadcast,^[9] and later placed fourth on YouTube's list of the top 10 trending videos of 2017.^[10]

For Lynne's first live presentation after her Golden Buzzer performance, she serenaded Mel B with her shy, stuttering Motown mouse puppet, Oscar, performing "Who's Lovin' You".^[9] Judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum, and Simon Cowell gave Lynne standing ovations. For this performance, Lynne received enough viewer votes to move on to the semifinals, where she brought her puppet Edna Doorknocker to sing "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman",^[9] and stood next to the judges' table so Edna could flirt with Simon Cowell. Again, all four judges gave Lynne a standing ovation. Viewers voted Lynne through to the finals.

For her final competition appearance, Lynne performed "With a Little Help from My Friends",^[9] with Petunia and Oscar interacting for comedic effect. Again, she earned standing ovations and judges' praise; Cowell predicted, "I think you're going to win."^[11] For the finale in episode 22, Lynne fulfilled her dream by performing "Anything You Can Do" with her idol and mentor Terry Fator, with Lynne singing as Petunia and Fator singing as Winston the Impersonating Turtle. After tripping over the first line of the song, she recovered and the act continued.^[12] The field was cut to the top five, and then to the top two finalists, Lynne and Angelica Hale. Host Tyra Banks then announced Lynne was the winner of the season, having received the most votes out of the 52 million votes cast.^[9] With the win, Lynne received the $1 million prize and a headline gig at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, originally set for November 3 and 4, with two additional shows on November 2 and 5 being added after the first two dates sold out. The Las Vegas shows also featured Angelica Hale, Preacher Lawson and Light Balance.

Darci Lynne and Friends Live[]

Lynne was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September.^[13] She appeared in Jeff Dunham's video The Haunted House on Dunham Hill, in which she takes three of her puppets (Petunia, Oscar, and Edna) trick-or-treating at Dunham's home, where they encounter him and some of his puppets (Walter, Achmed, Peanut, and Bubba J).^[14] In November, she made a guest appearance during a Terry Fator performance at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa.^[15] Also in November, she appeared in A Very Pentatonix Christmas performing "O Easter Egg" (an Easter-themed parody of "O Christmas Tree") with Petunia.^[16]

In December, Lynne appeared as part of the charity event One Night With the Stars at Madison Square Garden.^[17] Her December 16 homecoming show iHeartMedia and KJ103 Present Darci Lynne sold out within six minutes of the tickets going on sale. As a result, a matinee show earlier the same day and then later another two shows on December 17 were added.^[18] On December 31, she performed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas along with Fergie as part of a New Year's Eve event.^[19]

In November 2017, Darci Lynne and Friends Live, a national tour, was announced, starting with five locations, to take place in January and February 2018,^[20] which was later expanded to 52 dates taking place between January 2018 and January 2019,^[21] including 9 Christmas performances in November and December, referred to as Rocking Around the Christmas Tree with Darci Lynne and Friends.^[22]

In January 2018, Lynne appeared on Today with Oscar, performing "Who's Lovin' You".^[23] In March, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry^[24] and made a cameo appearance on the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards,^[25] and then returned to Little Big Shots in April as "a Little Big Shots legend", where she performed "Shout" by the Isley Brothers with Oscar.^[26] In May, she appeared as a guest on Pickler & Ben.^[27] In July, she participated in the 2018 Starkey Hearing Foundation gala.^[28] In August, she returned to AGT as a guest performer, singing "Show Off" from The Drowsy Chaperone with Petunia.^[29] In September, she appeared as a guest in an episode of Kids Baking Championship.^[30] In November, she was a guest on Steve, where she performed "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with Petunia,^[31] and later sang "Jingle Bell Rock" with Petunia during NBC's Christmas in Rockefeller Center telecast.^[32] In December, she returned to both the Grand Ole Opry^[33] and Pickler & Ben,^[34] and voiced Daisy in an episode of Fancy Nancy.^[35]

Also in December, Lynne starred in and hosted Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas. The NBC holiday TV special included both ventriloquial singing with her four main puppets (Petunia, Oscar, Edna and Katie) and non-ventriloquial singing, as well as duets with Lindsey Stirling, Toby Keith, and Kristin Chenoweth, and guest performances by Pentatonix and Hunter Hayes. Also included were the four America's Got Talent judges, Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Mel B, in a sketch, and Lonnie Chavis from This Is Us as the announcer for the special.^[36]

America's Got Talent: The Champions and touring[]

In January 2019, Lynne was a guest in another Food Network show, Winner Cake All.^[37]

Also in January, she returned to America's Got Talent as a contestant in America's Got Talent: The Champions. In the preliminaries, she performed a medley of "Nutbush City Limits" and "Proud Mary" with Oscar. Although she was voted in the top 3, she did not receive enough votes to continue to the next round.^[38] However, she was brought back as a wild card act, and performed "O mio babbino caro" with Petunia in the Finals.^[39] During the results show, she and Bill Barretta performed "Can't Smile Without You" as Edna and Rowlf from The Muppets. She ended up as runner-up behind her Got Talent successor, magician Shin Lim.^[40]

In October 2018, Lynne announced a second tour starting in February 2019, Darci Lynne and Friends: Fresh Out of the Box.^[41] In March, Lynne appeared as a guest for two stops of the Barbie 'Be Anything' Tour.^[42] In April, she appeared in a WE Day event in Washington.^[43]

In September, she returned to AGT as a guest performer again along with fellow Season 12 finalist Preacher Lawson^[44] where she performed "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" with Petunia.^[45]

In November, she appeared as a guest on an episode of the sketch-comedy series All That with her puppet Petunia,^[46] and also appeared in a WE Day event in Vancouver.^[47] In February 2020, she appeared as a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, performing "Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar,^[48] followed by another appearance on the show in April.^[49] Starting in July, she starred as a panelist on Nickelodeon's Unfiltered hosted by Jay Pharaoh.^[50] Also in July, she made a second appearance on All That, this time as the musical guest, where she performed "Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar. In August 2020, she returned once more to AGT as a guest performer again where she introduced Ivan.^[51]

In April 2021, she appeared in the Side Hustle episode "Make-A-Mutt" as The Wombat, then in June, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show again.^[52]

In July, she started a new tour, called My Lips Are Sealed (Except When They’re Not), running until August 2022.^[53]

In August, she returned to AGT as a guest performer for a fourth time, where she performed "Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan with Oscar.^[54]

Reception[]

Lynne's success on America's Got Talent has been credited with helping to bring ventriloquism back to the general public's attention.^[2][3]

Bill King of BuddyTV described Lynne's final America's Got Talent performance as "so seamless you need to be reminded of its difficulty".^[55] Talking to USA Today, Terry Fator said of Lynne that "she is, at 12 years old, one of the most unbelievable, perfect ventriloquists I've ever seen, and she'll only get better",^[56] and later called her "one of the most talented human beings on the planet" in an interview with Billboard.^[57] Professional ventriloquist Sammy King said in an interview with The Fountain Hills Times that "she is very gifted, a great singer and has tremendous comedic timing",^[58] while Jay Johnson described her on his personal blog as "a wonderfully talented girl" with "near perfect" ventriloquism technique and "singing chops [that] could stand alone without the puppet assistance", whose "dedication to the art and ... young spirit will influence a generation of belly talkers to come".^[59]

In August 2020, the Edmond Historical Society and Museum opened an exhibit, titled "Darci Lynne's Got Talent", dedicated to Lynne, which included clothing from her television performances, her first practice puppets, tour posters and scripts.^[60]

Personal life[]

Lynne attended Deer Creek Middle School near her home in Edmond, Oklahoma until eighth grade when she started being homeschooled.^[61] She missed the first day of seventh grade due to appearing live on America's Got Talent on August 16.^[5]

Her parents are Clarke and Misty Farmer. Lynne has three brothers: Nick, Dalton, and Nate; she also has a Maltipoo named Binks.^[62]

Filmography[]

Television[]

References[]