Today, Hale guest stars as the voice of engine trainee, Tai, in the Disney Junior and DisneyNOW animated special for preschoolers, Celebrate Chuggington, which commemorates the great big world of trains in the most traintastic holiday of all – Chuggington Day! The special kicks off a “Let’s Train Together” month-long initiative on Chuggington.com and the show’s social media platforms that is comprised of daily fun-filled and educational activities for kids and families to enjoy while they “train” together at home. “With Chuggington, specifically this episode, it’s all about training with your family and teamwork,” Hale tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “I’m really excited because I have a little sister, so I’m interested to see if she’ll recognize my voice. Seeing Abigail grow, I can really relate to that, and I can’t wait for her to watch it. And maybe she’ll learn a couple of things.” Chuggington isn’t the only project on Hale’s plate. She’s going to be releasing a new single this fall with an accompanying music video to follow up her “Looking Up” single, currently on music streaming services. “It’s actually been quite productive and busy despite staying home,” says Hale. “We used to travel so much that we never got a chance to really take time to ourselves and work on this kind of stuff. So, it’s really been enlightening, I guess I should say, to do all this. We’ve been able to work on our hobbies and things that we, obviously, didn’t have time to do before. It’s actually been kind of nice, but, of course, COVID itself is not nice.” And she continues her charity work with both Sepsis Alliance and the National Kidney Foundation, both organizations have a personal connection for her. When Hale was 4 years old, she developed a bacterial infection in her lungs that developed into double pneumonia and caused her to go septic, destroying her kidneys and ravaging her body. She went into kidney failure, and after months of searching for a donor, it was discovered that her mother Eva was a perfect match. “I never really want to stop charity work,” she says. “It’s honestly a lot of fun and raising awareness for those causes is extremely important to me. With the National Kidney Foundation, I recently came out with a learning video. It was around National Teacher’s Day, that’s when it was released, and it was learning material for kids to learn about taking care of your kidneys and about your body. It’s really important.” In the rest of the interview below, Hale speaks more about her Chuggington character Tai, life after America’s Got Talent, her sister Abigail, and her upcoming movie American Reject. How has life been since AGT and AGT: Champions? Going on America’s Got Talent for Champions, I never even thought about the possibility. I was like, “Wow.” So, that was another really cool thing that I got to do. And ever since then, I’ve been able to work on writing songs. I’ve been putting out more music and working on music production. With COVID-19, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to perform a lot, but I’ve been doing live performances from my home studio. Thanks to my dad for helping me build it out. Things have been going great ever since despite a couple of hiccups here and there. You are guesting on the new Disney Jr. and DisneyNOW special Chuggington: Tails From the Rails. How did you get invited to do it? I auditioned for it first. And then I went to a director’s meeting, and I got the job. Honestly, I love the character. I love the overall message of Tai. She sometimes feels a little prideful and it’s hard for her to put that away sometimes and to accept help from other people, but she truly does care about her training and her skills. She’s very proud of herself. I feel like everyone can relate to her in a way. Of course, we know you have a little sister because you were very much in love with her when you were on America’s Got Talent. So, are you still really close? Absolutely. She’s turning 4 this month. Isn’t that crazy? I can’t believe it. Oh, my gosh, she’s growing way too fast, but yes, we’re closer than ever now. The description of Tai is that she’s a determined engine, who is super strong, tough as nails and always has a can-do attitude. Are any of those qualities ones that you have? I do consider myself to have a can-do attitude. I’m very hardworking and despite maybe feeling sad or maybe I feel like. ‘Oh, I can’t get stuff done today,’ I always have motivation. Ever since what happened when I was younger, it’s been a battle. “Oh, I can’t do this,” or “Oh, it feels so hard.’ Then, I’m like, “Well, you know what? You went through all that when you were younger, you went through AGT, and you’ve done so many amazing things, so don’t be afraid. If you need to take a break or if you need to take some time, good, but don’t give up, keep moving forward.” So, I always have that attitude when I’m at war with myself. And, yeah, sometimes it is hard for me to put away my pride and listen to others. I’m still learning just like Tai with the help of her friends. You mentioned that the point of the episode is for kids to train with their parents. What kinds of things do you want them to be doing together? I think teamwork is really listening to each other. That’s something that I want to do with my sister, too. Sometimes when we fight, we just get mad and we don’t really want to listen to each other. It’s like Tai. She’s like, “OK. I’m confident in myself. I don’t need to listen to other people,” when she is hesitant about asking for help. There are very good lessons that no matter what age you are, you can learn from it, especially learning to do the basic things together, like brushing your teeth and just hanging out reading books together. Honestly, teamwork is important. With your family and with people alongside you helping along the way, it can make it all the more fun. Tai is an engine. For your career, you travel, do you ever take the train? You know what? There was one time I did take a train. It was actually a couple of hours, but it was a long time ago. I don’t know if it counts, but whenever we went to the airport, we always used a tram. I don’t think it counts. I would like to take an old-fashioned train. I think that would be really cool, but I’ve never done anything like that before. Have you started song writing as well as singing? Yes. I’ve taken time to work on my own songs and, of course, the process of song writing. I’ve been able to learn quite a lot. My music taste is always changing. It’s changed over time. So, I think compared to the songs that I released only last year, actually on my birthday, it changed a lot, and I think it’s grown for the better. I’m really excited to show everyone all the progress I’ve made and what I’ve been able to do. Without spoiling anything, what can you say about how your music is different? It’s grown. Music taste in general for a lot of people is constantly changing. It’s not a huge change, but I’m refining it, I should say. America’s Got Talent Live Shows start next Tuesday. What advice would you have for the contestants? The live shows were probably my favorite, but they were also the most terrifying. When you get on that stage, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is to just leave it all out there and try not to think of the aspect of a live performance because that might throw you off. So don’t think about that. Literally, just leave it all out on stage, do your absolute best, and enjoy it. Enjoy the experience. Relish every moment you have on that stage. Are you still in touch with any of the friends you made on the show? Absolutely. I’m still in touch with Kechi, DarciLynne, and plenty of others. I’ve made a lot of lifelong friends through it. You also did a movie called American Reject, which is so funny because it’s about a talent show. Tell me a little bit about your role in that. Did you enjoy acting? Oh, my God, yes. I love acting. I love singing, I love acting, and I just love entertaining. I loved recording American Reject. I always try and stay updated with where it’s going to all these film festivals. It’s really exciting to see how far it’s making it. My role is Anna. I love her so much. She’s super eccentric and, of course, she’s amazing at singing and she really looks up to Kay, the main character. I can really relate to her in a way because she’s enthusiastic and always has a positive attitude. She cheers up Kay and everyone when things may not seem the best. And she is a very hard worker. I love her attitude and I feel like I have a few things to learn from her, too. It doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it’s still going around film festivals. Hale’s Celebrate Chuggington animated special begins airing today at 8 a.m. ET on Disney Junior and DisneyNOW. Next,AGT: The Champions Finalist Angelica Hale on Her Future, Career Advice, Music and More
