TORONTO — A video showing a California voice coach singing a duet with Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth has gone viral, thrusting Sarah Horn into the global spotlight.
Horn, a voice instructor at California Baptist University and the music director at Riverside Youth Theatre, was invited onto the stage of the iconic Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 23 to sing “For Good” from the musical Wicked.
An audience of more than 10,000 people erupted with cheers and applause when Horn gave a pitch-perfect performance of the song. (Watch the video below.)
“Remind me never to pick someone who sings better than I do,” Chenoweth said afterwards. “Seriously, people. This voice is teaching our young people.”
The collaboration was posted on YouTube and has already had more than 2 million views.
Horn told KTLA she knew the song so well because Wicked was her favourite musical in high school. “I must have sang ‘For Good’ a hundred times,” she said.
In a recollection of the experience posted at BroadwayWorld.com, Horn wrote: “I was not singing for the crowd as a performer usually does but was singing FOR them, in place of them. I was them and they were me. I was up there doing what every single person in that audience wished they could do.”
Horn said she was swarmed backstage by people wanting her contact information and wondering “if I was an audience plant because it was just too perfect.”
On Twitter, Chenoweth said Horn “blew my mind.”
Horn described the duet as surreal.
“I know I will wake up thinking it was all a dream but then I’ll see the pictures and the video and realize that it was really real.”
During her concerts, Chenoweth typically brings an audience member on stage for a duet of the song. A video of Chenoweth’s duet with musical theatre student Kellie McKay the night after Horn’s performance has been viewed more than 21,000 times.
This video showing nine-year-old Brooke Besikof singing with Chenoweth has only had a little more than 8,600 views. A video of Chenoweth singing with Emmy Perry, 7, has had nearly 21,000 views.
Canadian singer Michael Bublé invited 15-year-old audience member Sam Hollyman on stage to sing “Feeling Good” with him. The YouTube clip has had 5.8 million views.
WATCH: Kristin Chenoweth sings with Sarah Horn at the Hollywood Bowl:
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