Bethany Joy Lenz isn’t only starring in Hallmark’s new series “Hope Valley: 1874.” The multi-talented artist also sang the show’s theme song, a poignant tune she wrote for the “When Calls The Heart” prequel.
Lenz, who has released multiple albums over the years, including 2025’s “Well, Well, Well” with fellow “One Tree Hill” alum Tyler Hilton, told EntertainmentNow the lyrics and music came to her while filming the new series, which premiered on Hallmark+ on March 21, 2026, but she didn’t expect it to open the show.
Bethany Joy Lenz Was Not Meant to Perform the ‘Hope Valley: 1874’ Theme Song Initially
Lenz, who plays entrepreneurial pioneer Rebecca Clarke in “Hope Valley: 1874,” co-stars with fellow Hallmark star Benjamin Ayres, who plays rancher Tom Moore, who owns the land where she and her young daughter get stranded with a broken wagon wheel.
“She’s kind of a musical genius,” he told EntertainmentNow, awestruck by how Lenz “just downloads (original songs) from wherever they come from.”
“Yeah, it just came to me,” she acknowledged. “I don’t know, it was pretty fast. I wrote it pretty fast. I got
the idea and kind of went with it, and, you know, it was fun little side project to do. I made a demo and sent it in, and then they said, ‘Yes, please.'”
Lenz said she had hoped to perform the show’s theme song, but said the producers “were pretty set on” another idea, which she suspects was “more of a classical composition they really loved.”
Lenz said that when she was inspired to write her song, which can be heard in the post above, “I thought maybe they could use this over the end credits or somewhere in the series. I mean, I don’t know, I just got inspired. I didn’t really care about where it was going to be used, but I did send it in and say, ‘Hey, if you like this, if you guys decide to go in a different direction with music, I just want you to have this in your back pocket.’ And then they did (use it).”
Benjamin Ayres Was Smitten with Bethany Joy Lenz’s Song Immediately
GettyAyres still remembers the moment he heard Lenz’s song while they were driving between filming locations in Vancouver.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, check this out, I recorded a song,” Ayres told EntertainmentNow, recalling how blown away he was by it. “I literally said, ‘If they don’t use this in the show, I quit. Because that’s all I can now picture, like this has to be the opening of the show.’ I was like, ‘This is so good, Joy, and it really helps set the tone.”
Ayres noted how “music is so integral to the feeling” of a scene, explaining, “An actor doesn’t actually have to do a lot; it’s the music that’s happening underneath that helps dictate how you’re feeling. It’s very important.”
Lenz chimed in, “Yes, it is, and I think, just for the authenticity of that world, and for people who are struggling, music is a huge component in providing hope and uplifting your spirit, or connecting in grief.”
In frontier communities that popped up in the 1800s, Lenz said, “That was the only form of entertainment. You know, they’d get together — somebody’s playing the fiddle, somebody plays a harmonica, somebody’s on the guitar. It’s like, that’s what you do when you have a community and you don’t have TV or a phone to scroll through. You connect — (music is) a huge connecting point.”
“Hope Valley: 1874” is available to stream via Hallmark+, with the second episode scheduled to drop on March 26.
