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Country artist David Morris went viral over the summer after his song ‘Carrying Your Love’ became a much loved TikTok trend. The catchy tune samples a 1990’s hit song by country music icon George Straight and the reimagined pop-country track has been a runaway hit with Gen Z — including JoJo Siwa. The former Dance Moms star, 19, used the song in a video to explain why she has thinning hair on one side of her head, and while JoJo was just one of millions who used the song on TikTok, she made a huge impact!
“As soon as she posted it I just got an influx of new fans that I could tell were her audience and she represents just positivity, self-worth, self-acceptance, and everything good about people, and I love that and I love what she represents,” the singer-songwriter told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “So, having her do a video to it, which was completely organic and completely natural, which is crazy because I’m sure she gets paid a lot of money to do stuff like that, it just just reinforced to me that what we’re doing is something that people can relate to. And this trend that started on TikTok is something that can reach even the most famous people. It was pretty surreal, but really cool.”
@itsjojosiwa Stress rash on my head when I was on Dance moms lead to no more hair there 🫠
JoJo used the ‘Carrying Your Love’ trend to open up about a personal struggle, but a lot of people on the social media platform created TikTok videos featuring their loved ones over the lyrics “I’m carrying your love with me” and David told HollywoodLife that really hit home for him. “The stuff that excited me the most was when I saw people using it for their kids, or to tell a story about their families or you know, even their pets. I thought there were some great stories. I saw videos of mothers and their stretch marks and how they are able to embrace their bodies because they know that their child was born and it’s healthy and if they have to live with that, then that’s the price they’re gonna pay. They’re gonna carry that love with them and that was just so cool to me, because that’s the type of stuff that I would never have thought of. Seeing it in different contexts with different people and how the message can kind of just adapt to different individuals was the coolest part of it.”
The song also made waves on the charts and introduced a new generation to the 1997 George Straight song it sampled, which was “super cool” for David, a diehard fan of the country music legend. “When I released the song originally, I made a comment in one of my posts that I hoped that maybe this song would introduce a new generation to George Strait,” he shared. “And, that sounded kind of lofty at the time, because let’s be honest, the generation that’s on TikTok is too young to really be invested in George Strait, or know who he is. Yes, of course, if you grew up in Texas, or your parents are diehard country music fans, you know who George Strait is. But for the general masses, I think it was really cool for them to say, hey, what song is this sample originally from? And then the really cool thing about that was I received dozens of messages and comments from parents telling me that they love my new song. They grew up listening to George Straight’s original song, and their children were playing my song on TikTok, and so they went and played them the original. So, being able to read those messages and hear that a mother bonded with her daughter over this song and had conversations about it, that was super fulfilling.”
Not only did David get permission and the rights to use the sample, he also got kudos from his idol’s team after the runaway success of his song on TikTok generated interest in the OG song. “It was just great because George Strait’s record label reached out to my team and congratulated us and thanked us for doing it,” he explained. “So that was pretty surreal to see because George Strait doesn’t need my help. But it was just great to be able to pay homage to him and do it the right way and see that it actually was working.”
