Cancer Survivor Steps Onstage to Stun Garth Brooks’ Audience With ‘I Told You So’
Garth Brooks’ epic shows are always special for fans, but for one young woman at a recent concert, it was once-in-a-lifetime. At a show in Richmond, Va., Brooks invited a recent high school graduate and cancer survivor, Danielle El-Jor, onstage to sing with him in front of a crowd of thousands.
In the video above, Brooks introduces the young woman to the crowd, noting that a year and a half prior, she was going to go to New York to audition for The Voice, but that same day, she had to begin chemo treatment. Now, she is officially cancer-free, he tells the audience as they erupt in applause. After meeting El-Jor the previous evening, “Miss Yearwood,” as Brooks calls his wife Trisha Yearwood, declared that since she didn’t get to go to her audition, she should get to sing on stage.
El-Jor soon appears on the stage, looking stunning and radiating joy. Brooks asks if the singer is nervous, but he admits he’s nervous, too. After discussing their heroes, Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis, the two launch into “I Told You So,” originally by Travis and covered by Underwood.
El-Jor begins the tune, nailing it from the first note and certainly doing the song — and her hero, Underwood — justice. Brooks stays in the background, accompanying her on acoustic guitar, save for one verse, and he beams with pride the whole time.
Brooks is in the middle of a three-year World Tour with Yearwood and is on the brink of releasing a new record called Gunslinger. The 2016 CMA Entertainer of the Year is also teaming up with Yearwood for a new Christmas record of duets this year, something fans have been awaiting for years. They’re performing together at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting later this year, as well.
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