KAYSVILLE, Utah — A Utah teen and her dad took to social media to share their uplifting duets after her choir practices were canceled for concerns of coronavirus — and now, they’re going viral.
For Mat Shaw and his 15-year-old daughter, Savanna, singing has always been a passion.
“I’ve looked up to my dad and his singing and what he can do with it, for my whole life,” Savanna said. “So, it’s been amazing to be able to sing with him.”
The two started recording duets and posting them on social media in the beginning of March after Savanna’s choir practice was canceled amid concerns of coronavirus.
“I didn’t have social media before this,” the 15-year-old explained. “I just wanted to get it so I could keep in touch with my friends, kind of see what they are doing, and I thought I’ll just post a video of my dad and I singing.”
They’re not ‘pros’ by any means. They record their duets in a closet using a microphone plugged into an iPad that’s propped up by a stack of old pajama pants.
“You recording some new music?” Mat asked Savanna as he walked into the closet. “In our quarantine recording studio?” he laughed.
“Yep this is it!” Savanna smiled.
All it took was a single duet called ‘The Prayer,’ for Mat and Savanna to capture the hearts of millions.
“We put it on Facebook and it just went wild!” Savanna said.
“It grew and grew and grew and I remember sending her a screen shot when it had 2,700 views and I said, ‘Savanna, you’ve got to see this, this is blowing my mind,’” Mat said. “I think as of today it has 3.7-million views on Facebook.”
Their duet was the first thing Savanna had ever posted to social media. “Not bad for a first post ever,” Mat joked.
For Mat and Savanna there is something bigger than the numbers – the message behind the songs they record.
“Especially in challenging times like this, really unprecedented times like this, music has a way to just kind of build hope,” Mat said. “To see a father and daughter singing together, sharing time together and sharing our talents, I think resonates with people who maybe aren’t able to spend as much time as they’d like with their parents or with their children.”
Following the first million views, the duo recorded another song, ‘A Million Dreams’ for their dreams coming true and dreams for a brighter tomorrow.
“I want to be able to give people hope and I want to be able to let them know that things are really hard right now but I really do think they’re going to be okay,” Savanna said. “I think if we all just work together it’s going to make things a lot better for all of us.”
The two have now recorded four songs, hoping to continue to spread a message of hope, with powerful lyrics and powerful vocals to match.
“I think the only thing more contagious than a virus, is hope,” Mat said. “So, we’re hoping to just do our little part in the world to help spread some hope.”
Mat and Savanna said they will continue to create videos and hope one day, once businesses reopen and things go back to ‘normal,’ they can record some of these songs again in an actual recording studio.
You can find a direct link to their YouTube channel here.
