Taylor Marie Ware (born September 17, 1994) is an American singer and yodeler from Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.

Before Ware knew how to yodel, she performed at a county fair at age four. Her talent was singing and playing a violin. When she was six she decided to sing to seniors, so she started an Adopt-a-Grandparent program. According to Ware, she taught herself to yodel from an audiotape and instruction book when she was seven years old, after going to a convention with a friend.

In 2003, Ware won $10,000 in the Yahoo! Yodel Challenge. She beat eight other yodelers to receive her prize. She was later featured in a Yahoo commercial. She also participated in a challenge to beat a Guinness world record.

Taylor honed her yodeling skills while taking lessons from country music star Margo Smith who is known worldwide as the Tennessee Yodeler. Shortly after taking yodeling lessons from Smith, Taylor was the runner-up on the NBC show America’s Got Talent in August 2006.

Ware performed on the Grand Ole Opry with Riders in the Sky when she was nine years old. At age eleven, she competed on NBC‘s America’s Got Talent and was selected by the viewers on July 13, 2006 to advance to the final competition (which aired on August 16, 2006). She was one of the top five finalists but she lost to 11-year old Bianca Ryan and Irish step-dancers/fiddlers, Celtic Spring. The million-dollar prize was later awarded to Ryan.

When Ware was nine, she was given a dog as a gift by Wayne Brady after she appeared on his now defunct television show, The Wayne Brady Show. She named the dog Brady after him.

Ware’s younger brother, Harrison, is also a singer and yodeler. He has performed onstage at the Tennessee State Fair.

Ware released her self-titled debut album in 2004. In 2007, she released her second album, titled America’s Yodeling Sweetheart. She appeared in an episode of Laguna Beach as herself.^[1] Ware was an opening act at the Liberty Bowl for singer LeAnn Rimes in Memphis, Tennessee on December 29, 2006, performing the national anthem. She also has appeared in commercials for Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Source:  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia