The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree ceremony breaks down into two minutes of tree lighting and two hours of celebrity performances — and that’s exactly how we like it.
This year’s lineup features 11 artists, including a 14-year-old and her pink puppet named Petunia. Come again?
Darci Lynne Farmer, who won season 12 of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” is slated to sing some of her holiday favorites on a bill that includes names such as John Legend, Diana Ross and Tony Bennett.
“I’m very excited,” says Farmer. “I mean, maybe a little nervous because it’s my first live performance, but I’m more excited than nervous.”
The teen ventriloquist, an Oklahoma native, says she’s been practicing since before Thanksgiving to sing her own renditions of “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
“I have so many favorite Christmas songs, so it was kind of hard to decide, but I picked the ones that sounded the most fun to sing,” she explains.
Her pink puppet, who accompanied her onstage on “America’s Got Talent” in 2017 and helped her overcome social anxiety, will technically be the one singing the 1967 version of Bobby Helms’ holiday rock song. You’ll have to tune into the live broadcast on Wednesday at 8 p.m. to see how exactly that dynamic plays out.
The performance kicks off a stacked holiday season for Farmer who’s landed her own NBC holiday special “Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas,” airing Dec. 11.
“We filmed part of it in California, and part in my hometown in Oklahoma,” she says about the show that’s focused on her family holiday traditions. “We have so many. We always beg my parents to open at least one present on Christmas Eve and we always go to the church service and look at the lights that are up downtown and go bowling.”
She’ll also be returning for “America’s Got Talent: The Champions,” starting in January 2019.
The annual tree lighting ceremony, “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” airs on NBC starting at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
