Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Brandon Barela, an 8-year-old with Down syndrome, gained attention for singing.
- His talent show performance and TikTok video received overwhelming support and positivity.
- Jelly Roll met Brandon backstage, highlighting the power of music and community support.
HARRISVILLE, Weber County – When Brandon Barela's teacher asked him and his parents if he wanted to perform in the third-grade talent show at Silver Ridge Elementary School, his mom Kourtney Barela had a pretty good idea of where things were headed.
"Every Jelly Roll song is on repeat in this house," Barela said of her 8-year-old son. "He takes my phone often, and we put music on, and he'll just walk around and sing."
The idea of her son singing in front of his whole grade, however, comes with a bit of trepidation. Brandon, otherwise affectionately known as "Chomp," has Down syndrome. Both students and teachers, however, were very encouraging during the performance, giving Chomp thumbs up and cheering him on.
"The support was just crazy. Everybody was just so happy for him," Barela said. "Everybody in the school knows him. They're all friends with him. And so it's just such a good experience for him, I think."
Barela later posted the video to her Facebook page, which garnered a lot of positive attention from family and friends. She decided shortly afterward to post the video on TikTok, holding some fairly low expectations, and was met with more surprise.
"Overnight I woke up just to an insane amount of notifications," Barela recalled. "It's a little bit overwhelming, but definitely such a positive thing."
The video has already garnered more than 648,000 views and thousands of comments.
"It's just been such a positive thing to see, which is very heartwarming and very, very reassuring," Barela said. "Nothing but positivity on there. Everybody cheering him on, (and) tagging Jelly Roll in the post."
@_kourtney03_ This boy and his love for @Jelly Roll is completely unmatched. His school had a 3rd grade talent show and of course he wanted to sing a song from his favorite person. I swear this kid can achieve anything! We love you sweet boy 💙 @Bunnie Xo 🪄 @huppb14 (I don't own music rights) #downsyndromeawareness#theluckyfew#downsyndrome#jellyroll#congenitalheartdisease#fyp♬ original sound - Kourtney Barela
Many of the comments called on the country singer and rapper to meet Chomp, with comments like, "Come on Jelly, make this kid's world, bro!"
Unbeknownst to the thousands of commenters however, Chomp was already able to catch the attention of the Grammy nominated artist last year. Barela and her husband had already purchased tickets to his August concert, and decided it was worth a shot to see if Jelly Roll would meet their son.
"I had reached out to the management team just kind of saying, 'hey, here's who we are. My son is a huge fan,'" Barela explained. "We sent him a little clip of him singing a Jelly Roll song. And they emailed me back immediately."
Chomp and his parents were able to meet Jelly Roll backstage before the August performance.
"(He) and Jelly Roll sang together for a few minutes, and it was such a cool experience," Barela said.
Raising Chomp and his 3-year-old baby sister, Aliyah who also has down syndrome can have it's fair share of challenges, but as Barela explained, the type of positivity and kindness that has been met out of Chomp's love for Jelly Roll makes a huge difference.
"I think sometimes there's kind of a stigma around, you know, kids with down syndrome, (they) can't do certain things, or can't be a certain way," Barela explained. "And I think he, kind of, is breaking all of those rules and showing that really he can do anything."
