Bear Bailey almost gave up on his dream of becoming a singer. Good thing, TikTok gave the aspiring singer a platform to showcase his talend and passion.
@bearbailey1 grew his followers to more than a million in as little as two weeks when he started posting videos of him singing. What’s different about his approach is that he was singing in a gas station.
The cashiers at the Super Serve station at his hometown in Louisiana is his stage and the staff and customers of the gas station are his audience.
It is obvious that they love it when Bear sings. As you can hear from the video, the cashier says, “Bear! I’ve been waiting for you.” Not only are the staff eager to hear his singing voice, even the customers who know who he is get excited and anticipate what song they would be serenaded with.
One video shows him coming up on the cashier and two unexpecting ladies hear him sing. They start responding to his song and they even begin dancing. Talk about appeal.
Bear’s real name is James Bailey but has been called that ever since he was young. His dream is to become a professional singer.
He started posing on TikTok October 2020 and back then had about 140,000 followers. That was before his gas station stint. Upon posting his videos singing requests at the gas station, his followers blew up to 1.4 million.
Bailey said that the growth of followers was very humbling.
“I’ve sang my entire life, and, you know, I’m 33 and you just get to an age where you kind of give up on your dream because you’re like, ‘This is never going to happen,’” he said in an interview.
He is inspired by his daughter and with what he has achieved, he says it is like he’s saying to his daughter, “Dad didn’t quit.”
If you have hopes and dreams, the most important thing you can do is to commit it to the Lord. As Proverbs 16:3: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”