Evie Clair is not your ordinary 13-year-old girl. The American schoolgirl has an angelic voice for one, and she also has a powerful story which she shared on America’s Got Talent. For her audition Evie sang “Arms” by Christina Perri, explaining that she is singing it for her dad Amos who is battling stage four colon cancer.
As her mum and dad watched from the side of the stage, Simon Cowell told her to sing the “best vocal you’ve ever done” for the audience, and she certainly delivered with a heartfelt, touching rendition of the folk-pop song. Check out her performance below.
Evie’s audition started off in a lighthearted manner, with the teen explaining that she is from a really small town called Florence, Arizona. She said “there’s like five prisons there and my dad works at the prison,” to which Simon quipped “well he hasn’t got much choice,” getting a laugh from Evie and the audience.
Evie then told the judges that singing on America’s Got Talent has always been her dream since childhood. She then started to tear up, as she explained that “about a year ago my dad was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and they gave him a five percent chance to live.” She added that her dad is continuing to work to support the family and that she is “here to sing for him”. Check out Evie’s cover of Macy Gray’s “I Try” for her second appearance on the show.
Evie said she chose “Arms” for her audition because “when my dad is having rough days I go to his room and I sing him this song to help him feel better to give him comfort and strength to continue fighting.” Cowell told her that she had been “really unbelievably brave” for sharing her story before Evie went on to nail the audition.
After such a strong performance Evie naturally got four yes votes from the judges. She was later given the choice to delay her participation in the series due to her father’s health, although she chose to continue her journey on season 12. She progressed through the competition until the final, where she sang her original song “Okay Day”, before being eliminated when the cut was made to create the top five. Unfortunately, Evie’s father Amos Abplanalp passed away during the season, just two weeks before her final performance on the show.
Following her America’s Got Talent appearance, Evie has continued to build her music career. A year after her appearance on the show, she dropped her debut album Okay Day, which featured 10 songs, all with Evie as the sole or lead songwriter.
She has continued to build her profile through her socials, and she currently uploads several videos a week to her YouTube channel, which has 157k subscribers and 19 million total views. Her videos are a mix of musical content, including covers, her original music as well as quirky content such as her latest video, which features her singing Disney songs while cooking lasagna. If you would like to see more from Evie Clair, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel . You can also visit her official website for more information.