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This Sister-Brother Duo’s Emotional Country Song Will Have You In Tears
Siblings Jenna and Stuart "Stu" Walker took the stage in honor of their mother, who died after struggling with her mental health.
The sheer talent and emotional message behind The Reklaws’ original country song was enough to bring some in the America’s Got Talent audience to tears and caused Judge Simon Cowell to dub the powerful performance “the kind of audition we love on this show.”
The Reklaws—which consists of siblings Jenna and Stuart “Stu” Walker—took the stage to honor their late mother with a heartbreaking, yet empowering, song about life’s darkest days to offer hope to those struggling with their mental health.
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“We’ve been back and forth trying to decide what song to do. We wanted it to be a song specifically about our mom,” Jenna shared before taking the stage. “We lost our mom to mental health and that shook up our world.”
Stu added that their mother’s 2022 death was “a very tough time for our family.”
“We just wanted to acknowledge that to people that are going through tough times,” he said.
Who Are The Reklaws?
The Canadian duo got their start singing while growing up in Cambridge, Ontario on the Yee Haw Adventure Farm, a fun-filled family destination run by their parents with its own pumpkin patch, 10-acre corn maze and rowdy pig races.
It was during those pig races that Jenna and Stu first took the stage to perform a “half-time” show for the crowds.
“I played the banjo, she sang,” Stu explained.
Their mom helped them come up with the name The Reklaws, which is just their last name spelled backwards and the addition of an “s” on the end.
“I love being in front of crowds and entertaining people,” Stu once said in an article from The University of Guelph, where both siblings attended college. “As long as everyone around me is having a good time, then I feel the night is successful.”
The siblings eventually moved out of the pig pen and into local cafes, stages and festivals, where they honed their musical skills and were quickly embraced by their Canadian fan base.
Their debut single “Long Live the Night” was once the theme song for the CFL Thursday Night Football, according to their website, and their viral TikTok hit “”What the Truck” later hit platinum status.
In 2023, The Reklaws hosted the Canadian Country Music Awards, even taking home the honor of Top Selling Canadian Album for their 2022 release Good Ol’ Days.
What Song Did the Reklaws Sing?
On AGT, the talented siblings chose to sing a song with a very personal message in honor of their mom.
“I hope that she can see us here,” Jenna said before taking the stage.
The song, titled "People Don’t Talk About," is about the importance of not keeping one’s feelings bottled up and opening up to those around you.
“We wrote this song probably two years ago. Our family’s been through a lot of stuff that we kind of didn’t feel comfortable talking about and we wrote it about that,” Jenna told Cowell. “We felt like if we had this opportunity to get on this stage and if we had one song to play, this would be the song.”
The duo took turns belting out the powerful lyrics to the song before joining together in perfect harmony.
“People don’t talk about trying to be yourself or feeling like you’re someone else
You’re not alone. You’re not alone.
I want to know everything that you don’t say out loud
Yeah, all the things that people don’t talk about,” they sang together.
The Reklaws and Drake Milligan
The Reklaws have a relationship with another fan-favorite country artist who regularly takes the AGT stage, Drake Milligan. Last year they posted on their Instagram that they recorded a song and music video with the artist and even traveled to Romania to film said video.
The song is called "Honky Tonkin' About" and you can listen and watch the music video here.
Why Did Howie Mandel Connect with the Reklaws?
After they hit their final note, the crowd erupted into cheers and Cowell and Judge Howie Mandel each gave the duo a standing ovation.
Mandel—a longtime mental health advocate—not only connected to the music, but also its message.
“First of all, you’re singing and your writing is impeccable,” he told them. “I don’t usually respond to lyrics like I’m responding to this. You know, I’ve been very open. My little soap box is mental health and there’s a stigma attached and the thing that allows me to survive is the ability to talk about it. This song is an important song and I think that you’re going to go a long way in this competition.”
After Judges Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara showered the siblings with praise, Cowell weighed in on what he felt made the act so unique.
“That was a great, great audition. Seriously good, unbelievably powerful. That’s the kind of audition we love on this show,” he said.
The Reklaws easily got the votes needed to move on in the competition and left the stage feeling accomplished.
“Their reaction just meant the world because that song means so much to us, just from what we’ve been through as a family in terms of mental health and that’s what was important to us,” Jenna said.
To find out how the country rock siblings do in the competition, watch America’s Got Talent Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC or available streaming on Peacock the next day.
