Chapel Hart went from being a regional act to being known around the world after their audition on Season 17 of America’s Got Talent in 2022. The trio, made up of sisters Danica and Devynn Hart and cousin Trea Swindle, had no plans of ever auditioning for any reality TV talent shows, including AGT, but changed their minds thanks to the persistence of a loyal fan, and a turn of events that made their unlikely audition possible.
“We had a fan to reach out, and she was like, ‘You guys need to go on America’s Got Talent, and they’re about to start auditioning,'” Danica recalls to Everything Nash. “And we were like, ‘No, thank you.’ We were very much so old school, like you get in the van, you go play the shows, you go back. You keep going back until you build a fan base, and you do that in the region. So we were just prepared and ready to do that. We’d already been on the road for a while, and she was just very persistent. She was like, ‘Y’all need to go. The world needs to hear this music. I wake up to your music every morning.'”
Chapel Hart had planned on opening for the Indigo Girls for a series of dates, when someone on their team got COVID, and Chapel Hart realized that their schedule, which had suddenly and unexpectedly opened up, fell at the same time as America’s Got Talent was holding their auditions.
“We kind of had an almost epiphany where we wanted at the end of our career, at the end of our lives, and when we’re old and rocking in our chairs on the porch, we just wanna say that we did it all,” Danica explains. “And that was ultimately the push to go to LA and audition. And I always thank God we did.”
Chapel Hart performed an original song, “You Can Have Him Jolene,” a response to Dolly Parton ‘s iconic “Jolene.”
“Before we went out, we were super, super nervous, but it was like as soon as we stepped foot on the stage, you could feel the crowd’s energy,” Devynn recalls. “It was so loud in there and before we even started, people were just cheering. It started to settle in a little bit, like we’re actually here and we’re actually doing this. And then once we started singing, all those nerves went away, and it just felt like we were at a Chapel Hart show. By the end of it we just, we had a blast performing during the audition, and the crowd was insane. People were up on their feet screaming. It felt like the room was shaking.”
The three singers poured everything they had into their performance, but were unsure by the four judges’ reactions if they had done enough, at least at first, unaware that they were about to earn a collective golden buzzer.
“We were standing there waiting to hear back from the judges,” Devynn remembers. “There wasn’t a yes. There wasn’t a no. It got awkward for a minute. And then we saw Terry Crews run down, and we were like, ‘Okay, what is happening?’ Trea leaned over to Danica and was like, ‘Should we leave?’ And I was like, ‘What’s happening?’
“And then, they did the three, two one,” she continues. “And in that moment, there was a sense of validation that we got worrying for so long, ‘Is our music good enough? Is what we’re doing enough to make it further than what we’re already doing?’ In that moment, we really got that validation and it was such a special moment to all of us.”
Chapel Hart just released their 11-track Glory Days album, co-writing all of the songs on the record. Purchase Glory Days and find all of Chapel Hart’s upcoming shows, including on their headlining Glory Days Tour, at ChapelHart.com.
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