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Ishani Sarkar

Country music icon Dolly Parton passed away on August 25 at the age of 80 from cancer. Tributes poured in from around the world as fans mourned her passing, but one news network found itself making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

During a Laura Coates Live report last Tuesday, CNN displayed a montage dedicated to the Queen of Country. But one of the images in the montage did not feature Dolly at all. Instead, it showed Las Vegas tribute artist Kelly Vohnn, 58, attending a screening of the film Song Sung Blue (2025) at the Palms Casino Resort, with the network seemingly mistaking the impersonator for Parton herself. CNN later apologised with a statement, “We regret the error and apologise to the Parton family.”
What do we know about Kelly Vohnn – a performer who has portrayed Dolly Parton over the years, and whose resemblance to the “Jolene” singer fooled even CNN?
What is Kelly Vohnn’s background?

Kelly Vohnn was born on May 29, 1968, to parents Nick and Fran in Toronto, and grew up with two siblings, Sean and Tracy. She studied Voice at the Royal Conservatory of Music and majored in Voice at Humber College in Toronto. She has three children, Brittany, Amanda and Chris, whom she raised and home-schooled as a single mother after her husband walked out on the family, per The Mirror. She married her current husband James Kirner in 2022, and the couple is based in Las Vegas.
She’s not just a tribute artist

Vohnn’s musical career began at the Keith Burton Tribute Show, where she impersonated Parton, Patsy Cline, Madonna, Shania Twain and Reba McEntire. She eventually launched her own label, Payback Records, and released her debut record A New Beginning in 1999, which found some small success in Europe. To balance her responsibilities as a single mum and her music career, she went on the road as a singing impersonator, taking her children along.
She worked as a supporting vocalist for Lou Gramm, Fee Waybill, and Mickey Thomas, led the one-woman shows Kelly Vohnn Divas and The Women In Me, and performed in Cowboy Cabaret. She also impersonates Barbra Streisand and Marilyn Monroe.
How did Kelly Vohnn react to CNN’s mix-up?












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A post shared by Kelly Vohnn Haggerty (@kellyvohnn)



As startling as the mistake was for fans, it was also distressing to Vohnn. “I started getting all these texts in from friends saying that I was on CNN, and I couldn’t believe it,” she told the New York Post, adding, “I was already heartbroken at losing Dolly because of how much she has given to me as a woman and an artist. But then to see these images of me on screen was just weird.”
She did not mince her words while calling out the network either. “Somebody at CNN really messed up and didn’t do their research,” she said, emphasising how she “felt so sorry and apologetic for Dolly”.


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The network later apologised to the ‘Jolene’ singer’s family; Vohnn, who is based in Las Vegas and a big fan of Parton, has thoughts on the matter herself


The network later apologised to the ‘Jolene’ singer’s family; Vohnn, who is based in Las Vegas and a big fan of Parton, has thoughts on the matter herself.


Meet Kelly Vohnn, the Dolly Parton impersonator who CNN mistook for the country legend

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The network later apologised to the ‘Jolene’ singer’s family; Vohnn, who is based in Las Vegas and a big fan of Parton, has thoughts on the matter herself

The network later apologised to the ‘Jolene’ singer’s family; Vohnn, who is based in Las Vegas and a big fan of Parton, has thoughts on the matter herself