Just one year before winning America’s Got Talent in Season 12, 11-year-old Darci Lynne took the stage at the Cinderella International Pageant. And the performance she put on was just a glimpse at was to come for her unforgettable run on AGT.
With her trusty puppet Petunia, Lynne broke out in Kristin Chenoweth’s “The Girl in 14G.” They traded parts back-and-forth on the Wicked star’s complex original song. Petunia took the more contemporary sections of the track, with Lynne putting her ventriloquist skills to the test by not moving her mouth at all. She then shocked the audience with her perfectly-pitched opera-like vocals.
Chenoweth and Lynne would later collaborate for the teen’s 2019 NBC Christmas special, Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas. The two Oklahoma natives duetted a mashup of “Sleep Well, Little Children” and “What a Wonderful World,” and bonded over one hilarious thing they had in common.
“We’ve actually met before, but seeing her again was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Kristin Chenoweth,” Lynne told ET at the time. “And she’s just so sweet. So actually, we have the same shoe size. So she was like, ‘Darci, I’m gonna send you all the shoes I don’t wear anymore!’ I was like, ‘excuse me, what?’”
What to know about “The Girl in 14G” by Kristin Chenoweth
“The Girl in 14G” was released on the Broadway star’s 2001 debut solo album, Let Yourself Go. The quirky, contemporary track is inspired by Chenoweth’s real life experience from when she first moved to New York City.
Written and arranged by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan, it’s made to show off Chenoweth’s far-reaching vocal ability, as it constantly switches from musical theater style to opera technique taken from the opera Tristan und Isolde, an aria from The Magic Flute, and elements from Swan Lake.
