LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The best singers and dancers in the country have made it big time after being selected for a national tour to showcase their talents.


What You Need To Know

  •  Two Louisville 5th graders were selected for Hits! The Musical

  •  D'Corey Johnson and Karsen Taylor will tour 48 cities on the national tour

  • Hits! The Musical national tour will start March 1

By day, two Louisville 5th graders are just ordinary students, but by night, that’s when their talents come to life.

“I started singing when I was three and I keep singing because it’s one of the things that I do best and it just makes me happy,” Karsen Taylor, 5th grader in Hits! The Musical, said.

D’Corey Johnson and Taylor are the best of the best. To prove it, they took their talents to the big stage this summer.

“I found out about it from my parents. They asked me if I wanted to audition and I said ‘yes,’” Taylor said. “I didn’t really know it was such a big show until probably until my third or fourth audition.”

After auditioning against 7,000 other kids, the Louisville 10-year-olds were selected for the national tour, Hits! The Musical.

The tour features 29 of the most extraordinary singers and dancers. Hits! The Musical tour will begin March 1 and will travel to 48 different cities across the U.S. 

Spectrum News 1 first spoke with D’Corey Johnson in 2021 when he was wowing crowds with his singing of the National Anthem (Spectrum News 1/Erin Wilson)

“A national tour and I, me, D’Corey Johnson, I got selected out of Louisville,” Johnson exclaimed. “Me and Karsen got selected, and I was just overjoyed.”

It’s a tour for the future stars. 19 singers and 10 dancers ages 10 to 22 were selected, including these two Kentucky stars. They are the two youngest members of the group.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity because I get to go to places I’ve never been before and I get to perform with amazing dancers and singers,” Johnson said.

In the meantime, Johnson and Taylor will keep doing what they love.

“It’s my passion and I love to do what I love to do because my mom helped me to get where I needed to be,” Johnson said.

“When she was younger, she would sing, and we didn’t know that she could sing, and she started singing Dream Girls and my mom, she’s passed away now, she would always say when she was younger, ‘She’s going to be a star,’ she said she’s gonna have her show one day,” Kevin and Tracy Taylor, Karsen’s Parents said.

That dream is coming full circle for both kids as they proudly represent Kentucky.

Hits! The Musical will perform in Louisville on April 8 at the Brown Theatre.