Naomi Shure called into The Bobby Bones Show to share her side of the story on her viral singing video.
Bobby Bones discovered Shure on TikTok when the video of her singing “I Am Telling You,” at the 2010 Arkansas Miss America Pageant came across his page. The viral video is known for her awful singing, but the confidence she had while performing, which is what impressed Bones and led him to want to talk to her to hear her side of the story. For years, that video has haunted Shure, even though she has posted several redemption videos proving she can truly sing. But what inspired so many people about that video was that she went for it as hard as she could.
She was in Hot Springs, Arkansas competing in a pageant that is a prerequisite for the Miss America pageant. She had been there all week getting scrutinized and she only got the dress she was going to wear for the performance the week before. It was fitted a little too tight on her which caused her to have some breathing trouble. At the beginning of the song, three chimes were supposed to play to let her know what key to start singing in. She couldn’t hear them, so she started in the wrong key. Theatre had taught her to never stop in the middle of a performance and just keep going and leave it all out there and completely sell it, so that’s what she did. She said if you mute the video and just watch her performance, you’d think she is crushing it. The song choice also wasn’t what she was used to singing. She had sung musical theater songs for years, so this song was a bit outside of her comfort zone. Now looking back, she thinks she got a little too far from who she truly is and her strengths and should’ve stuck with what she knew.
When she walked off the stage, she was so glad it was over because she knew that she had bombed it, but she thought she would never have to think about it again. But it became a viral video on social media and constantly gets brought up in her life.
The performance happened 13 years ago, and she said she is a completely different person now. Shure is now a speech pathologist working with a range of people from three-year-olds all the way up to kids in high school. She’s worked in multiple practices as well and truly enjoys her work and loves being able to help people. While she was in the Miss America system, she had to choose an issue to work with and chose Domestic Violence because she had personal experiences with that as a child. During her two years serving, she spoke publicly about the issue many times and was able to raise a lot of money and said it brought a sense of purpose into her life. That inspired her to work with kids who are having issues and help them overcome barriers.
Shure still sings every day with her son just for fun, but she no longer sings publicly. Bones surprised her and asked her to sing at some of his Comedically Inspirational shows if she is interested. She appreciated the invitation but does not know if she will put herself out there like that again!