12-Year-Old Yodeler To Sing at State Fair
By: Betsy Reason
Azalia Davidson, 12, Noblesville, taught herself to yodel when she was 6 and has since yodeled her way to the Hamilton County 4-H Fair Youth Talent Contest and on to the Indiana State Fair Youth Talent Contest, where she’ll compete this Sunday.
Azalia Davidson, 12, Noblesville, had the opportunity to perform her yodeling songs with the Grammy Award-winning Riders in the Sky, a western music and comedy group that wrote and performed music for “Woody’s Roundup” from the “Toy Story 2” movie and more.
Allow me to introduce Azalia Davidson.
She’s 12 years old and is in the seventh grade.
She taught herself to yodel when she was 6 years old by watching YouTube videos.
Azalia has performed in several talent shows, including the Hamilton County 4-H Fair’s Youth Talent Contest for which she won Grand Champion the past two years and Reserve Grand Champion this year, in the Junior Division.
As first-place Youth Talent Contest winner of the Vocal Solo in the Junior Division, she also went on to win first place the past two years at the Indiana State Fair, and she was also invited to sing her yodeling song at the State Fair Opry House stage at the 2022 State Fair.
Azalea will return to the State Fair this Sunday for two appearances.
She’ll compete at noon, singing “Yodeling at the Grand Ole Opry” in the State Fair Youth Talent Contest, Junior Vocal Solo division, in the Purdue Extension Building (formerly the Farm Bureau Building.)
The daughter of John and Sally Davidson of Noblesville, Azalia will also sing the National Anthem at 4 p.m. Sunday for the Supreme Livestock Drive in the Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
The latter invitation to sing was a pleasant surprise. Azalea was asked to sing at Purdue University for the 4-H Roundup on June 27. “We had no idea this would go further, but she received a phone call from the 4-H office at Purdue a few weeks later asking if she would be willing to sing the National Anthem (at the Livestock Drive),” her mom said.
Besides loving to sing, she is a Hamilton County 4-H’er and won Grand Champion for Pygmy and Meat Goat Showmanship at this year’s county 4-H Fair. She and her family live on a farm and have 25 goats, one sheep, one alpaca, one pony, four rabbits, four hamsters, four dogs and 10 cats.
Azalia this spring sang with the legendary Grammy Award-winning Riders in the Sky, a western music and comedy group that wrote and performed music for “Woody’s Roundup” from the “Toy Story 2” movie; a Pixar short, “For the Birds;” and also wrote the song and lyrics for “Monsters Inc.”
The Riders in the Sky performance was a sold-out show at the Eagles Theatre in Wabash, Ind. It was an “amazing night,” according to the band, who posted on social media: “Joining in the fun was 12-year-old yodeling phenom Azalia Davidson, once again proving she can hit a note only an airedale can hear.”
She also stole the show during an earlier performance with Riders in the Sky at the Brown County Playhouse in Nashville, Ind., garnering a standing ovation. “It was an amazing evening …” her mom said. “After the concert, several people even asked for her autograph.”
Azalea’s dream is to someday appear on “America’s Got Talent.” And that dream may very well happen, although it may take a while. She had a Zoom video-conference audition in November, singing “He Taught Me How to Yodel” for “America’s Got Talent.”
The next morning, Azalea received an email from an “America’s Got Talent” show producer asking the Davidsons to contact them the next business day. During a 20-minute phone conversation, the Davidsons learned of the show producer’s desire to have a yodeler on the show. But it’s not a quick process and could take two years to get Azalia on the show. The Davidsons learned that one of the previous winners, Darcy Lynn, who won the 12th season of “America’s Got Talent” in 2017, worked with the show producer for four years before she made it on the show.
When I met Azalia, she was 8 years old and holding $100 in cash after winning her age division of the Cicero Kids Got Talent Show at the Lights Over Morse Lake Fourth of July celebration in 2019. Just minutes earlier, she dressed, from head to toe, as Disney mermaid princess Ariel and sang “Part of Your World” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” It was the second consecutive year that she won the talent show; in 2018, at age 7, she sang the lively “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” the first song that she ever sang on stage in public, her mom said. Her prize money, she saved up to spend on the family’s trip to Walt Disney World.
“She wanted to start doing talent shows after she was successful at her first one,” her mom said.
Azalea sang for two years in the Indianapolis Children’s Choir. Ariel is her second favorite Disney princess, her favorite being Belle from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
She attends Carmel Clay Schools where her mom is a teacher of 27 years.
“Azalia likes to yodel because it’s unique, and it has a fun sound to it, her mom said. “No one else in our family can yodel.”
Azalia said that “yodeling comes easy” because she can “break” her voice well for yodels. (The break is the point between the higher register (head voice) and the lower register (chest voice).)
Her mom said of Azalia: “She sings and yodels all the time. We can be in the car or at home, and she is always singing or yodeling.”
–Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.
4-H FAIR TALENT
SHOW WINNERS
Here are the winners of the Hamilton County 4-H Fair Youth Talent Contest. Winners of each category are also eligible to compete at the Indiana State Fair, which runs through Aug. 20.
Junior Solo Division — Vocal Solo, Azalea Davidson, first; Amelia Peters, second; Instrumental Solo, Evan Feliciano, first; Clara Dantsin, second; Novelty Solo, Jayda Delaney, first.
Junior Group Division — Dance Group, Dazzling Dancing Princesses, Vivienne Thibodeau and Brienne Babione, first place, Senior Solo Division — Vocal Solo, Addie McMillan, first place (and Grand Champion of Senior Division); Lucy Kaufman, second place; Instrumental Solo, Ethan Feliciano, first place (and Reserve Grand Champion of Senior Division); and Dance Solo, Abigail Montemer, first place.
The competition schedule follows: Jr. and Sr. Tumbling Solo and Group followed by Jr. and Sr. Novelty Solo and Group, 11 a.m. Saturday; Jr. Vocal Solo and Group, followed by Jr. Instrumental Solo and Group, noon Sunday; Jr. Clogging Solo and Group followed by Jr. Dance Solo and Group, 11 a.m. Aug. 19; Sr. Clogging Solo and Group followed by Jr. Dance Solo and Group, 4 p.m. Aug. 19; Sr. Vocal Solo and Group followed by SR. Instrumental Solo and Group, noon Aug. 20. All competitions will be in the Purdue Extension Building, formerly known as the Farm Bureau Building.