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Darci Lynne's Silky Cover of Billie Holiday's "Summertime" Is Near Perfect

The America's Got Talent Season 12 winner channeled her original Act for the cover. 

By Jackie Manno

Ventriloquist and singer Darci Lynne threw things back to her original America's Got Talent Audition, proving how much her voice has grown. 

How to Watch

Watch America’s Got Talent Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC and next day on Peacock

On February 12, Lynne shared a revamped version of her singing the classic jazz tune ''Summertime." This time, she shook things up by switching back and forth between keeping her mouth open and closed. During this version, she ad-libbed some incredible riffs and vocal flips, while snapping her fingers to give the song a swinging rhythm. She then spun around in a circle, knowing that she totally nailed it. 

''Real ones remember where this is from,'' she captioned the video.

Check out the cover here

RELATED: Darci Lynne's Cover of "Broken Halos" by Chris Stapleton Is Ultra Touching

Lynne originally sang ''Summertime'' to America for her AGT Audition at the age of 12. There, she used her rabbit puppet, Petunia, and earned a Golden Buzzer.

When she returned to America's Got Talent: Fantasy League in 2024, she sang a rendition of ''I've Got the Music in Me,'' then later performed her original tune, ''Push Our Luck'' for the Semi-Finals. 

What to know about the song ''Summertime''

Originally written by esteemed jazz composter George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, ''Summertime'' has now become a jazz standard.

“Summertime” opens the opera and is reprised several times throughout the musical production, the most popular instance being when it is sung as a lullaby to a baby. The tune soon became a widespread ditty to soothe a young one and has since found its way into several other facets of music,'' American Songwriter explained of the song. 

Billie Holiday's 1936 refined jazz version was commercially successful, launching the new interpretation of the tune into the mainstream spotlightOther cover versions have been recorded by Janis Joplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Annie Lennox, Lana Del Rey, and more. 

RELATED: Darci Lynne's a Cappella Cover of Taylor Swift's "Lover" Proves She's a Vocal Powerhouse

Darci Lynne performs during Season 1 Episode 6 of America's Got Talent: Fantasy League