Gilly & the Girl is a contemporary acoustic duo based in Central Florida, featuring Mike Gill on guitar and vocals and his wife, Charity, on lead vocals and hand percussion.
They’ve built a reputation for warm, engaging performances on stages both on land and at sea. Their sets cover favorites from across the decades, inspired by artists like James Taylor, The Beatles, Whitney Houston, Jim Croce, and Patsy Cline, giving audiences an easy mix of nostalgia and fresh energy.
With a wide and versatile song list, Gilly & the Girl are a great fit for weddings, private parties, corporate events, and more. Whether you’re looking for relaxed background music or a lively, feel-good set, they bring a personal touch that helps make any event memorable.
Our Story
(the long version)
Where We Started
Before we ever shared a stage, we were two theater kids who grew up in different corners of the country and yet somehow ended up over 7,000 miles from home at the exact right moment.
Charity grew up in small town Georgia, singing in church and performing in community theater. She earned her Theatre degree from Columbus State University, toured the country with Missoula Children’s Theatre for a year, and eventually moved to Orlando mostly because she has always been a full-fledged Disney adult. There, she performed as both a Disney princess (Belle) and villain (Drizella) until Universal Studios Japan came searching for their next Elphaba in their 35-minute version of Wicked. She booked it, packed up her life, and spent three years in Osaka belting in English and Japanese.
During her fourth year, while performing in a different show, she met someone who would change everything.
Mike grew up between Washington State and Florida. He received his Theatre degree at UCF, interned at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, performed professionally there and other companies including Pennsylvania Shakes and PB&J Theatre Factory and worked as an actor at Universal Studios Orlando. Guitar had always been his private hobby since age 11. It was something he loved but rarely shared publicly. Singing in front of an audience (as himself) was honestly the last thing he wanted to do.
Mike ended up in Japan on a two-month contract performing as a toy soldier during Christmas. He landed a physical comedy role that involved wandering the park and startling tourists. It had nothing to do with singing, playing guitar, or music at all. The job wasn’t even supposed to be his. Another actor friend had been offered the role first, but he couldn’t fit into the costume. Mike almost didn’t either (his arms were too long) until the friend pointed out to the costumer that the sleeves looked like they could be let out. They tried it, the sleeves were adjusted, and suddenly the costume fit perfectly. Thanks, Chris.
And just like that, Mike was on a plane to Japan…
When Our Paths Collided
We met in Osaka in December of 2011. Within two weeks, we were saying “I love you.” Within a month, we both knew we were eventually going to get married but we waited to get engaged until November of 2012.
After returning to Florida, life was anything but glamorous. Charity worked as a spa receptionist because breaking into the competitive Orlando entertainment scene proved tougher than expected. Mike continued performing for Universal and Disney. But we were together, and that was enough.
November 23, 2013 we married under a huge, beautiful tree in Maitland, Florida, at what we still lovingly claim was one of the best weddings ever thrown. It was a full-blown celebration with family, friends, and of course, a soundtrack we curated like our lives depended on it.
Back to Japan—Together
In 2013, we auditioned together for Universal Studios Japan and were invited back this time as a team. Mike became an “Ollivander” in the brand-new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Charity became the “Bride of Frankenstein” in the Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show. We returned to one of our favorite places in the world and easily settled back into life in Osaka for another 3 years.
There, we started casually playing music together at a tiny Canadian-owned pizza place (RIP Slices). We weren’t getting paid. We were just experimenting. We were finding harmonies, figuring out our sound, and coaxing Mike out from behind the comfort of character roles. Every gig, he grew more confident performing as himself.
A friend named Paul eventually suggested something that changed everything: “You two should be traveling the world and playing on cruise ships.”
We loved the idea! So we learned more cover songs, filmed a humble little reel, sent it out, and in early 2017 we landed our first contract with Celebrity Cruises that took us to the Baltic Sea, a place we never even dreamed we’d travel to.
Finding Our Name
Before boarding that first ship, The Celebrity Eclipse, we realized we needed a duo name. We asked our friends, got dozens of suggestions, and one stood out: “Gilly & the Girl.”
It was fun, catchy, a little nautical, and it stuck.
We had no idea we’d still be calling ourselves that ten years later. People sometimes joke that “the Girl” deserves top billing, but honestly, we never put that kind of meaning into it. We just thought it sounded good. And Mike is the first to say that Charity’s the real lead singer anyway making the name a little ironic in the best way.
Life at Sea
From early 2017 through late 2019, we performed 5 long contracts on 4 different ships as a lounge duo for Celebrity Cruises, and only people who have worked on ships truly understand the chaos of that lifestyle especially when you’re brand new. You don’t ease in. You’re thrown straight into it.
Our first day onboard, Charity ended the night in tears from sheer overwhelm. There are rules, schedules, drills, cabins that are practically closets, stairwells that never seem to go the right direction, new faces every hour, and the constant pressure to prove yourself after every cruise finishes. It’s a lot. But like every crew member who survives those first days, we learned our rhythm.
Ship life is full of extremes. There were days when we felt invisible exhausted from performing, convinced no one was really paying attention, just trying to get through set after set. And then there were days when we felt like superstars. We’d pack out a venue and find out guests were planning their entire days around when Gilly & the Girl was playing. That kind of support kept us going.
The travel itself was unforgettable. We visited over 50 countries together, from Estonia to New Zealand, from Iceland to Australia, French Polynesia to Costa Rica. We’ve passed through the Panama Canal more times than we can remember. It was the education of a lifetime, one port at a time.
Musically, we grew at a ridiculous pace. We arrived with maybe 50 songs in our repertoire. By the time we finished our lounge-duo years, we had over 600 songs and the list is still growing. It always makes us laugh when someone gets frustrated that we don’t know their one specific request, considering how many songs we do have under our belts. But performing on ships teaches you very quickly how to be flexible, how to read a room, and how to create real emotional moments for people. Those moments mattered to us, because music has the power to connect and unite complete strangers in a way very few things can especially these days.
We didn’t just meet guests, we met some of the most talented musicians from around the world. Ship life is a melting pot of artists, and the friendships we made there are still a part of our lives today. We have connections in countries we’ve never even visited, simply because we worked alongside people from nearly everywhere. It’s a strange feeling to realize you suddenly have a “home” in places all over the globe.
The years we spent at sea were intense, exhausting, joyful, sometimes heartbreaking, and absolutely transformative. It was where we built our foundation not just as performers, but as partners.
The Pandemic Shift
On March 17, 2020, during a break between our long cruise ship contracts, we were scheduled to play a St. Patrick’s Day show at Margaritaville Resort in Kissimmee. Instead, everything shut down. Charity suggested we livestream the show from Mike’s Uncle Scott’s living room, where we were staying at the time. Between cruise contracts, we didn’t have our own place.
We went live on Facebook, expecting a few friendly faces. Instead, hundreds of people tuned in. They shared the video, commented, cheered us on, and sent tips that genuinely helped us stay afloat during a terrifying and uncertain time.
It showed us just how incredible our fanbase really was.
So we kept going. Twice a week, for months, we livestreamed themed shows: road trip tunes, decade nights, Beatles tributes, Eagles tributes, even a “date night” set for couples stuck at home. It gave us purpose, and it connected our little community across the globe.
At the same time, we had just closed on a condo in Winter Garden literally days before everything shut down. We couldn’t move in yet, so we stayed with Uncle Scott & Aunt Val until summer, slowly getting back on our feet and easing back into Florida’s live-music scene not knowing if we’d be able to sustain our live music ventures on land.
The TikTok Curveball
In the middle of all this, one of Charity’s best friends suggested downloading a new app called TikTok “just to pass the time.” We got hooked like everyone else, and one day Charity posted a silly lip-sync video of us performing the Golden Girls theme song.
By the next morning, we had more than 10,000 followers.
Early on, our videos were mostly goofy. Some of which definitely make us cringe now, but eventually we blended music with humor and found our voice. People responded. They reached out from around the world, asked us to perform at events, and connected with us in ways we never expected.
We struggled at first with how to market ourselves. Were we the sentimental, harmony-forward cruise-ship duo? Or were we the goofy couple people loved on TikTok? Eventually we realized the truth:
We’re both.
Today, across TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, we’ve grown to a combined community of over 760,000 followers, and those platforms continue to open doors we never imagined.
The Fan Cruises
Somewhere around 2021, while we were still rebuilding our land-based schedule, people kept asking us the same question:
“When are you going back to cruise ships?”
At that point, returning as lounge musicians wasn’t on our radar at all. We were deep into building our guest entertainer shows, and the idea of going back to the lounge-style schedule didn’t feel like the right move for us.
But we kept hearing about other bigger Central Florida musicians who were organizing fan cruises — special sailings where their supporters could book a trip, hang out, and enjoy private performances. The idea stuck with us. It felt like a way to bring the fun of ship life back into our world without going back to the old model.
So we reached out to someone Charity had known since childhood, a friend named Tim, who Charity actually used to babysit. Tim was all grown up and had become a very successful travel agent. When we asked if he thought a fan cruise was possible, he didn’t hesitate.
And just like that, our first fan cruise was born.
It sailed out of Fort Lauderdale and visited the ABC Islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. We planned private performances just for our group, casual hangouts, themed cocktail events. We wanted it to be fun, personal, low-pressure moments designed specifically for people who genuinely wanted to be there.
We had no idea if anyone would book it. Maybe 20 people. Maybe 50 if we were lucky.
Instead, nearly 200 guests joined us on that very first cruise.
We were floored. Completely humbled. It was surreal to look around and see an entire room full of people who booked a full vacation because we were hosting it. Not just because of the itinerary or the ship, but because they wanted to meet each other, spend time together, and be part of something we created.
The success of that trip led to more. And now, we’re working on our fourth and fifth fan cruises, scheduled for 2026 and 2027. Each sailing has its own personality, its own group dynamic, and its own unforgettable moments. And every time we launch another one, we’re blown away that people continue to say yes.
It’s one of the most meaningful parts of our career. How amazing to have this little community that formed accidentally and then somehow became a tradition.
Stepping Into the Guest Entertainer World
After the world reopened, we did what most Central Florida musicians did: we went straight back into the bar and restaurant circuit. It was steady work, it kept us connected to our community, and it gave us space to rebuild our confidence after such a chaotic couple of years. While we were performing in those familiar venues, we were also quietly working on something bigger.
To break into the guest entertainer world on cruise ships, we needed two polished, fully arranged 45-minute shows. Something strong enough to hold a main stage with a full orchestra or band. Building those shows from scratch took months of planning, arranging, structuring, rewriting, and rehearsing. We juggled daytime prep sessions with nighttime bar gigs, slowly shaping the material that would eventually redefine our entire career.
Thanks to Jayne, Steve, Mitchell and the Don Casino Talent Agency, we booked our first official guest entertainer contract for late 2023. We secured it almost a year in advance, which gave us the time we needed to finish the shows the right way. Once we stepped into that world, everything changed.
Since that first contract, we’ve been performing regularly as guest entertainers on Oceania and Regent Seven Seas — two cruise lines that couldn’t be a better fit for the kind of music we love to share.
These days, our work looks very different from those early post-pandemic months. We take far fewer bar and restaurant gigs and far more ticketed concerts, corporate events, private parties, and guest entertainer cruise contracts. It’s been a gradual shift, but one that’s allowed us to build a healthier, more sustainable career doing the shows we’re most proud of.
Choosing Home
People often ask when we’re going on tour, and the honest answer is: touring isn’t our main focus. After years of nonstop travel, we’re finally choosing a healthier balance. That said, we did dip our toes into it this year with a short Midwest tour in the fall of 2025 through a booking agency. And we’re doing it again next year. It’s another tight little run, all booked and managed by the same agency.
If touring continues for us, it will always look like that: short, targeted, agency-run tours. We won’t be booking tours ourselves. It’s too much stress, too much logistics, and frankly not how we want to spend our time. Working with an agency keeps everything streamlined and professional, and the venues are small but lovely. Mainly ticketed theaters and community spaces, not bars and restaurants.
In 2020, we adopted a cat, our sweet elder girl Granny Pants, not knowing what the future held. She is absolutely a people cat, and we try to be home with her as much as we can. Even when we travel, we make sure she has someone giving her the affection and attention she demands.
Our life now is a blend of:
cruise ship guest entertainer work
corporate gigs, private gigs, ticketed events
familiar public venues across Central Florida
short-form videos across our social platforms
balanced, intentional time at home with our loved ones
People often ask when we’re releasing original music. Maybe someday. We’re not ruling it out. But with the schedule we keep, songwriting isn’t at the top of our list right now. We also get asked about collaborating on original music, and while we appreciate the interest, if we ever put out originals, we want them to come directly from us and not through outside co-writing or collaboration. So for now, we’re focused on the work we already love, and we’ll let original music happen naturally if and when the time is right.
We spent years overseas missing big celebrations, sad moments, and everything in between. Being home has shown us how much we missed and how much we value being present now.