A young adult male singer wearing a dark t-shirt with a tattoo, holding a guitar, and a young adult female performer in a patterned dress with jewelry and bracelet, performing on stage at an indoor venue under artificial lighting. 5:14
Lauren Spencer Smith channel icon Lauren Spencer SmithOriginal creator 7.7M views Save

Keith Urban's second duet partner is only 11

Keith Urban usually holds a contest and brings one winner onstage to sing with him. At Sunfest in West Palm Beach, Kayla has already had her turn when he tells the crowd there were two singers he loved. more

The second, he says, has "an amazing little voice, and she's only 11, and I just wanted to sing with her so bad." Then he calls her out. "Lauren Spencer-Smith, ladies and gentlemen. Come on out." He makes sure she can hear herself and that everyone can see her, and when he asks her to say hi, she tells the crowd "Hello."

Lauren had sung for the contest, and "I thought you sang it amazing," he tells her. They already had a winner, but he wanted to sing with her too, so he asked if she knew any other songs. "I know this one," she said, and it was "Make You Feel My Love," the ballad known from Bob Dylan and Adele. Lauren takes the first verse with one hand on the microphone and the other moving with the words.

Lauren Spencer-Smith, with curly hair, sings into a microphone and gestures with her other hand against a dark background. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Lauren opens 'Make You Feel My Love' in front of more than 20,000 people.

More than 20,000 people are out there, and she shows no sign of nerves. The voice coming out of her sounds years older than she is.

Listeners keep coming back to her age. They call her voice mature, even grown-up, for an 11-year-old, and one well-liked comment only wishes for a quieter place to hear her.

A young adult male singer wearing a dark t-shirt with a tattoo, holding a guitar, and a young adult female performer in a patterned dress with jewelry and bracelet, performing on stage at an indoor venue under artificial lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Keith Urban usually holds a contest and brings one winner onstage to sing with him.

Keith stays on acoustic guitar and sings with her into his own microphone. As the most-liked comment puts it, a global superstar is singing backup for an unknown 11-year-old girl.

Keith Urban, his tattoos showing, plays an acoustic guitar and sings into a microphone on a stage at night. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Keith plays acoustic guitar and sings along with Lauren into his own microphone.

Plenty of the love goes his way, too. People call him humble and real, a star whose fame never went to his head. What they point to is simple. He already had his winner and made room for one more singer anyway.

The last verse is Lauren's, sung in her patterned dress on a dark stage. Then she and Keith finish the song together.

Lauren Spencer-Smith, with long hair and a patterned dress, sings into a microphone on a dark stage. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Lauren sings the last verse before she and Keith finish the song together.

When it ends, Keith says her full name once more and adds, "You'll hear more of her." He was right. Lauren went on to make music her career, with songs of her own. One listener who was in that Sunfest crowd says they had been singing along to them without knowing they had watched her up there at 11.