12/4/2021
Five Flags Speedway
Snowball Derby national anthem singer Davis a Viral Sensation
Snowball Derby national anthem singer Davis a Viral Sensation
By Chuck Corder
If you’re willing to chase your dreams, music can lead you a lot of places.
Brandon Davis believes that message down to his east Tennessee bones. And it has led him this weekend to Pensacola for the 54th Annual Snowball Derby presented by Hooters. Davis will sing the national anthem for the crown jewel of short-track racing just shy of 1 p.m. today at Five Flags Speedway.
Davis is rocketing toward the moon right now, a country artist who has gone viral recently through TikTok and Instagram Reels — @brandondavis_music on those two social media platforms. His sources of inspiration are wife, Destiny, and their four kids, each of whom regularly appears in his videos begging their daddy to sing something around their Chattanooga kitchen and home.
“The pandemic turned the world upside down and everyone started going to their phones because we couldn’t go anywhere,� said the 28-year-old Davis, who performed at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church last month in Pensacola. “My wife saw an advantage there. She told me to get on Tik Tok and sing. I thought it was just an app for people to dance and tell jokes. I got dad jokes and two left feet. I’m not fit for this.
“She said, ‘Just try it and see if you can make something of it. You make good music and people need to hear it.’ �
Proving once again women are right about everything, Brandon Davis followed Destiny’s advice. His music and precious family has resonated with fans. He has 1.5 fans on TikTok and with more than 11 million likes. Close to 150,000 fans follow him on Instagram and he has more than 355,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Davis released his first EP in September and recently inked a deal with Big Yellow Dog Music on the heels of his social medial stardom.
“I got to work with some killer producers and some amazing writers,� he said. “Everybody had been asking, ‘When are you dropping the album?’ We made it happen. We melded it all into one piece of work and it has been well-received. I can’t say how blessed we are.�
While Davis has had a lifelong love affair with music, he could never get in front of the right people and into the right studios to gain traction. A vicious, head-on car accident in 2019 where he needed life-saving surgery was the catalyst for Davis to get serious about pursuing his passion.
“It put everything into perspective,� he said. “There are things you aspire for and always chase. Music was at the top of the list for me. It scared me to death that it all could be taken away. I tell my kids all the time to go chase their dreams, but I wasn’t doing anything with mine.�
Finally things reached a crescendo on a Father’s Day trip in 2020, just at the height of the pandemic. Destiny Davis saw the perfect opportunity to nudge her husband into viral fame. Locked in the car, Brandon Davis finally relented, and Destiny recorded him singing a few songs and put them out into the social ether.
“I started getting a few song requests from fans online,� Brandon Davis said, “and then (Destiny) caught me in front of the fridge and once we posted that one, that’s when things really took off.�
Davis quit his full-time job as a design engineer and the rest is his living history.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I think this could happen,� he said. “Insane is an understatement. It’s an outta-this-world thing to happen. It’s beyond a blessing.�
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