Lady Antebellum fans watching the ACCA awards on Monday may have noticed some new additions to their band during “Freestyle.” The group welcomed back-up singers Cheryl LuQuire and Ileia Sharae to the stage in order to capture the filled-out sound present on the recorded version of the song.
The call to perform on the awards came as an unexpected surprise for LuQuire, a Mississippi native singer-songwriter. “I received a text message from a friend, who’s in the band, literally 24 hours before we had a call time, ” she says. He told her that the band had just completed rehearsals for the show, and realized that they needed a bigger sound for the live performance.
LuQuire enthusiastically accepted the invitation and started studying up. “I just wanted to make it the best and come prepared, so I purchased the song, popped in my headphones and probably listened to it 300 times.” She showed up the next day and completed a few quick run-throughs with band prior to soundcheck. Lady A was open to experimenting with the harmonies, as this marked one of the first times that backup singers had joined them on stage. They all knew that they were headed in the right direction when Luke Bryan popped in midway through the practice to tell them that they sounded great.
The group channeled the groove they found in the rehearsal into a smash high-energy performance on Television. In fact, Lady A thought that the show went so well that they invited LuQuire and Sharae to join them on stage for several songs at their upcoming New Year’s eve performance in Downtown Nashville. Given that they were able to pull off a flawless performance with less than 24 hours notice, viewers are sure to be in for a treat on New Year’s eve.
In the meantime, check out Cheryl LuQuire’s solo work on her Website, Facebook, and Twitter!