Trace Adkins stuns budding singer with duet invitation

Country star Trace Adkins has plucked a budding singer from obscurity to perform alongside him on a string of U.S TV shows. The You’re Gonna Miss This hitmaker was impressed by Maureen Maltez’s performance at a college fundraiser earlier this year (13) and looked her up when it came to planning his TV performances of new song Watch The World End.
Adkins shocked the 23-year-old when he walked into her class at Columbia State Community College in Tennessee two weeks ago and asked her to join him for two performances in New York, as the track’s original collaborator, Colbie Caillat, was unavailable.
The pair jetted to the Big Apple on Tuesday (14May13) ahead of their performance on U.S. breakfast show Today on Wednesday (15May13) and Adkins admits he was thrilled to give the gifted young woman an opportunity to shine.
He said, “There were any number of seasoned professionals here in town that of course I could have gone with and they would have done a beautiful job. But I saw her sing… and I remembered her and I just thought, ‘I bet it would really mean something if she were to do it.’ I know what I would have thought if I was (young) and somebody would have come in and said, ‘Hey, you want to go to New York City and sing on the Today show?’
“I want this to be fun for her, something she remembers. As I was leaving (her school) a couple of the ladies came outside and caught me, and they had tears in their eyes and they were like, ‘You don’t understand, this girl is so special.’ I said, ‘You don’t have to tell me about that.’ I saw the aura when she walked out onstage. There’s something about her. She has that thing. I saw it right off.”
The duo are also slated to appear on U.S. show Fox & Friends later this week (begs13May13).