ORLANDO, Fla. (WKRN) — Even though the new Miss America won’t be crowned for a couple more days, Miss Tennessee has already made her mark in the competition with her spectacular singing, which earned her a preliminary talent award Thursday night.
The 2025 Miss America’s Teen preliminary competition kicked off on New Year’s Eve at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, followed by the Miss America preliminaries on New Year’s Day and the talent preliminaries on Thursday, Jan. 2.
Officials said a total of 103 young women are vying for the two crowns, including Miss and Teen contestants from all 50 states, a Miss contestant from Washington, D.C., and a Miss contestant and a Teen contestant from Puerto Rico.
According to posts from the official Instagram accounts for Miss America and the state-level winners, the three preliminary winners for “Miss America’s Got Talent” were Miss Tennessee Carley Vogel, Miss Pennsylvania Paige Weinstein, and Miss North Carolina Carrie Everett. In addition to engraved platters, they each received a $3,000 scholarship.
Based on footage provided to News 2 by Hometown Productions, Vogel poured her soul into singing “Climb Every Mountain” from “The Sound of Music,” Weinstein spun and leapt across the stage while twirling batons to “Thunderstruck,” and Everett sang a stunning rendition of “The Impossible Dream.”
When she was announced as a preliminary talent winner, Vogel said she felt pure shock, joy, and happiness. She added she’s been singing since she was 10, and “Climb Every Mountain” felt like a testament to her journey in life.
“This was dedicated to my grandmother, who passed a month before I left for Miss America, and I truly felt her on stage with me tonight,” she said.
Vogel said she’s learned resilience and time management skills from the whole experience, but she hopes that, if she wins Miss America, she can inspire people to overcome challenges they face in life.
This news comes just over six months after Vogel — who was Miss Music City at the time — was named one of the winners in the preliminary talent portion of the 2024 Miss Tennessee competition.
Per her biography on the Miss Tennessee website, Vogel is a senior majoring in music business and minoring in musical theatre at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), which sponsored her “My Scholarship Journey” ad page in the Miss America program book. As an accomplished vocalist, she’s sung the National Anthem more than 200 times and performed almost every genre of modern and classical music, including opera, Broadway, and country.
In addition to being an extraordinary singer, Vogel is also an advocate for liver health and living organ donation, according to her bio. Since age 12, she’s partnered with the American Liver Foundation to help teach people how to live a healthy lifestyle. She’s also partnered with Donate Life Tennessee to raise awareness about the more than 100,000 people awaiting organ donations.
Leela Beaty — who was Miss Central Tennessee’s Teen before being crowned Miss Tennessee’s Teen in June — was also a preliminary talent winner at the state competition. Ahead of Thursday’s Miss America’s Teen Talent Show, the Miss Tennessee Organization announced on social media that Beaty would be performing an emotional dance to “a narration of the inspiring story about her recovery following her accident.”
However, the preliminary talent awards for Miss America’s Teen went to Miss New Hampshire’s Teen Kylie Laroche, Miss Texas’ Teen Macie Krause, and Miss Louisiana’s Teen Melissa Le, officials said.
The finals for Miss America’s Teen are set for 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 4, followed by the Miss America finals at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 5. If you want to stream either of the events or watch replays of previous events, click here.
