Everyone who watched, or actually heard, Jackson Dean Nicholson, a senior defensive end at Arundel High School, Maryland, got left speechless.
As a matter of fact, this is not about his in-game performance, mind, but rather his pre-game delivery of the national anthem, which was unexpected from everyone, but fortunately everyone liked it.
Since Nicholson realized that the singing of the national anthem was not prepared from anyone, and couldn’t let the school play a recording over the loud speakers, or even the crowd itself, he had only one decision.
The decision he made, made him viral all over internet when the video of him singing was uploaded in 2018! He, even though was not professionally prepared to sing the national anthem, since he got only one acoustic guitar, and with the stress of before starting the match, Nicholson, surprisingly gave to everyone one of the best versions of the U.S. national anthem ever heard.
“It was very cool. I probably knew 90 percent of the people sitting in those stands, and they had no idea I was doing it ‘til I brought my guitar out,”- stated Nicholson for the Baltimore Sun at the time.
Music was not something new to Nicholson, or how he will be called later with his stage name Jackson Dean. Since freshman year, he has been writing and singing songs, and was also working on his first album around the same time his video got viral.
As for his football career, back in 2018 he said : “This is my last year, then I’m done. I’ve got until January, I’ll have all my credits done, and I only have to be enrolled for this semester. I got a waiver by my principal and she’s very supportive of what I do.
“I’m going to go for it.”
Best of luck, Jackson!
We simply can’t get enough of hearing that performance, and we want this to be only the beginning.