Mason Ramsey

Mason was born on November 16, 2006, in Illinois, US. When he was three weeks old, he came to live with his paternal grandparents, Ernest M. Ramsey and Frances Ramsey in Golconda, Illinois. He has an older sister.

According to his grandfather, Mason began singing even before he began talking. He spent hours down in the basement with Ernest listening to the songs of Hank Williams Sr., who is his favourite singer. The first song he tried to sing was Williams Sr.’s ‘Long Gone Lonesome Blues’. At the age of four, he performed for Josh Turner at the Carson Center, opened for Gene Watson when he was five years old, and took up the guitar after he turned six. As a seven-year-old, Mason sang with Kenny Rogers on a Christmas TV Show.

Mason Ramsey was already an upcoming young singer with an impressive résumé even before the release of the video. In January 2015, he emerged on top of the 27th Annual Kentucky Opry Talent Search (beginner division) after performing Williams Sr.’s ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’.

He was first introduced to internet stardom in January 2017 when another video of him singing was uploaded online. In that video, he was seen sitting in a Walmart shopping cart and performing Williams Sr.’s ‘Hey Good Lookin’’. A Clarksville, Tennessee-based radio station named Beaver 100.3 FM found Mason and asked him to sing the song for them. He did and also sang it in their studio, where he performed with his guitar.

On March 24, 2018, he was filmed singing ‘Lovesick Blues’ in front of air mattresses at a Walmart store in Harrisburg, Illinois. The video was subsequently uploaded to ViralHog’s YouTube channel and eventually found its way to Twitter, where it garnered several million views within a few days.

Twitter users absolutely loved the 11-year-old music prodigy looking positively dapper in a bow-tie and cowboy boots. He tapped his feet and yodelled his heart out, mesmerising fans from all over the world. His performance was turned into memes that have been circulating on the internet for a while now. Several disk jockeys have made remixes of the song, which have become popular in their own right.

On April 10, 2018, he was featured on NBC’s ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’. He gave an interview and performed ‘Lovesick Blues’. He told Ellen during the interview that his dream was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. After the performance, she informed him that he would get to do just that on 14 April. She also arranged a concert for him at the Harrisburg Walmart. It was broadcast live on Walmart’s Facebook page.

Walmart has awarded Mason a $15,000 college scholarship. It was announced during his appearance on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’.