There is a good chance you already know Courtney Hadwin.
You might just remember her as the nervous 13-year-old who walked onto the America’s Got Talent stage in 2018, barely seeming able to speak above a whisper.
Then the music started.
Hadwin launched into Otis Redding’s ‘Hard to Handle’, transformed completely and delivered the sort of raw, uninhibited performance that made the judges — and millions watching online — sit up immediately.
Howie Mandel hit the Golden Buzzer, sending the young British singer straight through to the live shows. The audition subsequently became one of the defining viral moments of that season.
Eight years later, Courtney Hadwin is 22, making music on her own terms and heading to Liverpool.
She plays The Jacaranda on Thursday 3 December, as part of the second leg of her 2026 UK tour, with doors opening at 7pm. The Liverpool date is currently listed as a 14+ show, with MuddiBrooke supporting.
That America’s Got Talent audition
Hadwin had already appeared on the first series of The Voice Kids UK before travelling across the Atlantic, but it was America’s Got Talent that introduced her to an enormous international audience.
Her performance of ‘Hard to Handle’ came during season 13 of the show, with Mandel comparing the teenager’s explosive stage presence to Janis Joplin before giving her his Golden Buzzer.
Hadwin eventually made it all the way to the final, performing songs including James Brown’s ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’, Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to Be Wild’ and Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ during the competition.
For many viewers, that is still the Courtney Hadwin they remember.
But quite a lot has happened since.
Finding her own sound
Rather than spend her adult career recreating a viral television moment, Hadwin has increasingly moved towards establishing herself as an independent songwriter and performer.
Her music now pulls together elements of rock, blues, soul, funk, pop and R&B, retaining the rasp and physicality that first grabbed attention while giving her considerably more control over the songs themselves.
Hadwin describes recent years as a period in which she has embraced independence, working closely with Minneapolis songwriter and producer Kevin Bowe while developing her own material.
That eventually resulted in her debut album Little Miss Jagged, released in 2025.
Rather than sticking to a single genre, the record moves between pop, soul, blues and rock, with Hadwin describing it as a collection of individual songs designed to form a broader statement.
There is an interesting contrast here.
The 13-year-old Courtney Hadwin became famous for interpreting somebody else’s classic song.
The artist arriving in Liverpool this December has spent the intervening years trying to make sure audiences know what Courtney Hadwin herself sounds like.
From Little Steven to new music
That evolution has also brought some notable collaborators.
Her track You Only Love Me When I Lie’, co-written with Kevin Bowe, was subsequently revisited in a 2026 release featuring Steven Van Zandt — Little Steven — of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
Her latest single, WHATCHA GUNNA DO?!, arrived on 25 September 2026 and continues the next phase of Hadwin’s music following Little Miss Jagged.
It comes as Hadwin returns to UK stages for another run of shows through autumn and winter, following tours earlier in 2025 and 2026.
Speaking recently about how much has changed since America’s Got Talent, Hadwin put it rather simply:
“I was still a baby, finding out who I was as an artist and as a human being.”
Now 22, she says she is far more comfortable knowing who she is and what she wants to make.
Courtney Hadwin in Liverpool
Liverpool gets its opportunity to see that transformation up close when Courtney Hadwin arrives at The Jacaranda, 21–23 Slater Street, on Thursday 3 December 2026.
And The Jacaranda feels like an interesting setting for her.
This isn’t an enormous television stage with judges waiting to press buzzers. It is an intimate Liverpool music venue where the songs and the performance have to do the work.
For anyone whose last memory of Courtney Hadwin is that 13-year-old exploding into ‘Hard to Handle’ on American television, December’s show offers the chance to discover what happened next.
Because the viral audition might have introduced Courtney Hadwin to the world.
It certainly didn’t turn out to be the whole story.
The Jacaranda, Liverpool
Thursday 3 December 2026
Doors: 7pm
14+
