Darci Lynne

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

Born in Oklahoma, Lynne developed an interest in singing from a young age, but was held back by her shyness before audiences. Inspired by performances by ventriloquists including 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 recognition and acclaim 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. After ''AGT'', Lynne made numerous appearances on other television shows, and she has held several tours with her puppet characters.

Early life and education

Darci Lynne Farmer was born on October 12, 2004. She is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Lynne's parents are Clarke and Misty Farmer, and her three brothers are Nate, Dalton and Nick. Growing up, Lynne loved to sing, but she was shy and was afraid to perform in front of an audience. 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.

In 2014, Lynne 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. Since then she has worked with Owen and vocal teacher Tiana Plemons. In 2015, she won first place in both the junior division at ''Oklahoma's Got Talent'' and ''Oklahoma Kids''. She also won Broadway, Specialty Acts, and overall Entertainer of the Year at ''American Kids'' in Branson, Missouri.

Until eighth grade when she began homeschooling, Lynne attended Deer Creek Middle School near her home in Edmond, Oklahoma. She missed the first day of seventh grade due to appearing live on ''America's Got Talent''.

Professional career

''Little Big Shots'' and ''America's Got Talent''

In March 2016, Lynne made an appearance on ''Little Big Shots''. She performed "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" with her puppet Katie, the singing cowgirl. 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. 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.

Lynne competed in the twelfth season of ''America's Got Talent'' in mid-2017. During the first episode broadcast on May 30, Lynne and her puppet Petunia (a sweet, girly bunny), performed " Summertime" from ''Porgy and Bess''. 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 in the show's history, within 30 hours of broadcast, and later placed fourth on YouTube's list of Top 10 trending videos in 2017.

For Lynne's first live presentation after her Golden Buzzer performance, she serenaded Mel B with her shy and stuttering Motown mouse puppet Oscar, performing "Who's Lovin' You". 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 sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" with her puppet Edna Doorknocker. She stood next to the judges' table so Edna could flirt with 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", with Petunia and Oscar interacting for comedic effect. Again, she earned standing ovations and the judges' praise. Cowell predicted: "I think you're going to win." For the finale in episode 22, Lynne fulfilled her dream by performing " Anything You Can Do" with her exemplar 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. 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. With the win, Lynne received the million dollar prize, and a headline gig at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas. Originally set for November 3 and 4, two additional shows were added on November 2 and 5, 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'' and ''Grande Ole Opry''

Lynne was a guest on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' in September 2017. 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). In November 2017, she made a guest appearance during a Terry Fator performance at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa. Also in November, she appeared in ''A Very Pentatonix Christmas'' performing "O Easter Egg" (an Easter-themed parody of "O Christmas Tree") with Petunia.

In November 2017, a national tour was announced, ''Darci Lynne and Friends Live''. Starting with five locations that took place in January and February 2018, it was later expanded to 52 dates taking place between January 2018 and January 2019, including nine Christmas performances in November and December called ''Rocking Around the Christmas Tree with Darci Lynne and Friends''. In December 2017, Lynne appeared as part of the charity event ''One Night with the Stars'' at Madison Square Garden. 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. On December 31, she performed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas along with Fergie as part of a New Year's Eve event.

In January 2018, Lynne appeared on ''Today'' with Oscar, performing "Who's Lovin' You". In March 2018, she appeared on the ''Grand Ole Opry'' and made a cameo appearance on the ''Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards''. She returned to ''Little Big Shots'' in April 2018, as "a Little Big Shots legend", where she performed " Shout" by the Isley Brothers with Oscar. In May 2018, Lynne appeared as a guest on ''Pickler & Ben''. In July 2018, she participated in the 2018 Starkey Hearing Foundation gala. In August 2018, she returned to ''AGT'' as a guest performer, singing "Show Off" from ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' with Petunia. In September, she appeared as a guest in an episode of ''Kids Baking Championship''. In November 2018, she was a guest on ''Steve'', where she performed "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with Petunia, and later sang "Jingle Bell Rock" with Petunia during NBC's '' Christmas in Rockefeller Center'' telecast.

In December 2018, Lynne returned to both the ''Grand Ole Opry'' and ''Pickler & Ben'', and voiced Daisy in an episode of ''Fancy Nancy''. Later in December 2018, 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. Duets were performed with Lindsey Stirling, Toby Keith, Kristin Chenoweth, and guest performances by Pentatonix and Hunter Hayes. Also included was a sketch with the four ''America's Got Talent'' judges: Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Mel B. Lonnie Chavis, from ''This Is Us'', was the announcer for the special.

''America's Got Talent: The Champions'' and more touring

In January 2019, Lynne was a guest in another Food Network show, ''Winner Cake All''. Also in January, she returned to ''America's Got Talent'' as a contestant on '' 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 three, she did not receive enough votes to continue to the next round. However, she was brought back as a wild card act, and performed "O mio babbino caro" with Petunia in the finals. 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 ''AGT'' successor, magician Shin Lim.

Announced in October 2018, Lynne began a second tour in February 2019, called ''Darci Lynne and Friends: Fresh Out of the Box''. In March 2019, Lynne appeared as a guest for two stops of the Barbie Be Anything Tour. In April 2019, she appeared in a WE Day event in Washington. In September 2019, Lynne returned to ''AGT'' as a guest performer again, along with fellow season 12 finalist Preacher Lawson where she performed "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" with Petunia. In November 2019, Lynne appeared as a guest on an episode of the sketch-comedy series ''All That'' with her puppet Petunia, and also appeared in a WE Day event in Vancouver.

In February 2020, Lynne appeared as a guest on ''The Kelly Clarkson Show'', performing "Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar. This was followed by another appearance on the show in April. In July 2020, Lynne became a panelist on '' Nickelodeon's Unfiltered'', hosted by Jay Pharaoh. Also in July, she made a second appearance on ''All That'' as the musical guest, performing "Something's Got a Hold on Me" with Oscar.

In August 2020, Lynne returned to ''America's Got Talent'' as a guest performer again, where she introduced Ivan. In April 2021, Lynne appeared in the ''Side Hustle'' episode "Make-A-Mutt" as The Wombat. In June, she appeared on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' again. In July 2021, Lynne started a new tour, called ''My Lips Are Sealed (Except When They’re Not)'', running until November 2022. In August 2021, Lynne returned to ''AGT'' as a guest for a fourth time, and performed " Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan with Oscar. In July 2022, Simon Cowell ranked his favorite Top 15 Golden Buzzer moments in ''AGT'' history during season 17, which Lynn placed 2nd. In September 2022, Lynne, along with Terry Fator, made a guest appearance during ''AGT'''s seventeenth-season finale, performing " Over the Rainbow" alongside Celia Muñoz, another singing ventriloquist.

Reception

Lynne's success on ''America's Got Talent'' has been credited with helping bring ventriloquism back to the general public's attention. Bill King of BuddyTV described Lynne's final ''AGT'' performance as "so seamless you need to be reminded of its difficulty".

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". He also called her "one of the most talented human beings on the planet" in an interview with ''Billboard''.

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". Jay Johnson described her on his personal blog as "a wonderfully talented girl" with "near perfect" ventriloquism technique and "singing chops hatcould stand alone without the puppet assistance", whose "dedication to the art and ... young spirit will influence a generation of belly talkers to come".

In August 2020, the Edmond Historical Society and Museum opened an exhibit, titled "Darci Lynne's Got Talent". Dedicated to Lynne, it includes clothing from her television performances, her first practice puppets, tour posters and scripts.

Characters

*Petunia is a bunny
*Oscar is a Motown mouse
*Edna Doorknocker is an old lady
*Katie is a yodeling cowgirl
*Ivan is a papinijuwari
*Okie is a duck
*Scarlett is a fox
*Ace is an orangutan
*Nigel is a bird

Filmography

References

External links

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Interview with Cybervent

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynne, Darci
2004 births
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
America's Got Talent winners
American child singers
American people of English descent
American sopranos
American women comedians
Living people
People from Oklahoma City
Ventriloquists
Yodelers