In 2018, little Mason Ramsey became one of the internet's most recognizable faces after a viral video of him yodeling Hank Williams’s song "Lovesick Blues" in the cleaning aisle of a Walmart spread like wildfire across the internet.

The performance turned the boy from small-town Illinois into the "Walmart Yodeling Kid," a meme that quickly snowballed into late-night appearances, festival stages and record deals.

But viral fame is sometimes a short runway, and Mason has since had to navigate the gap between internet novelty and working musician.

Here's how he went from singing at the historic Grand Ole Opry and making Subway sandwiches to once again taking center stage, this time with the likes of musicians like Lana Del Rey.

Who Is The 'Walmart Yodeling Kid'?

On March 24th, 2018, 11-year-old Mason Ramsey posted a video of himself singing legendary country artist Hank Williams's song "Lovesick Blues" in a Walmart in Harrisburg, Illinois.

Apparently, this wasn't the first time Ramsey had decided to perform in the national supermarket chain, and he had developed quite a reputation among locals for his high-pitched Hank Williams impressions.

But this video spread far beyond southern Illinois and got posted and reposted on YouTube, Twitter / X and many other platforms as it garnered attention around the globe.

It's easy to see why the video became the sensation it did, as it's one of the most American things you could possibly come up with. It shows Mason dressed in his best, crisp white shirt, a little red bow tie and a pair of black cowboy boots that he used to tap away to the beat of the song.

Add in the fact that he was inexplicably performing in the cleaning aisle of a Walmart, and the video was ripe for virality.

People started calling him the "Walmart Yodeling Kid" and posting remixes and edits of his now-famous rendition as he continued spreading online.

At the time, Twitter user @The_Winnster turned Mason into the "Tired SpongeBob" meme that read, "When you finish your yodel solo in front of your grandma at Walmart," while user @miafxulkner tweeted an "Is Your Child Texting About" joke in which she turned well-known internet acronyms into Yodeling Kid references.

Within weeks, the original performance had been seen over 25 million times and kicked off a ripple effect that set off Spotify streams of Williams’s 1949 recording to increase by over 2,000 percent and reach number three on the U.S. Viral 50 chart.

Ramsey’s sudden fame soon moved him from meme status to television guest and festival performer, cementing the "Walmart Yodeling Boy" as one of 2018’s defining viral figures.

How Did Mason Ramsey React to Going Viral?

Before his rise, Mason Ramsey and his grandma had been making yodeling trips to their nearest Walmart for years, with his new fans then uncovering years of content showing Mason singing his heart out at the supermarket.

Wait ! So they do this every year ? Lol look at old lady again 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/9l5nXlm4Ww

— 👑 (@kingCONQUER_) March 29, 2018

This explains why Ramsey was disarmingly matter-of-fact about his overnight fame. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he described Golconda, Illinois, his hometown of 700 people, as a place where "all we do is bale straws of hay, and next thing you know, you're sitting under a tree taking a nap with your hat down and a weed in your mouth."

He told Ellen DeGeneres he had sung in Walmart "like 50,000 times" because it was the only store around, but that his plans after becoming a famous country singer were to go to college, move to Florida, and get a motorhome.

But Mason said that his dream was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, a hundred-year-old live music stage in Nashville, Tennessee. DeGeneres surprised him with the news that she had booked him for the stage the next weekend.

What's The Walmart Yodeling Kid Been Up To Since His Viral Fame, And Where Can I Find Him Today?

Mason Ramsey wasted little time turning viral attention into an actual career. Within a month of his Walmart performance, he signed with Atlantic Records and Big Loud.

In April 2018, Ramsey capped off a headlining set in Nashville by climbing onto an inflatable horse and crowd-surfing across the audience, his fans passing him around the venue while he held on, cowboy style.

A few days later, he appeared on stage at Coachella with DJ Whethan, which is arguably a setting about as far removed from Golconda, Illinois, as it gets.

Hi, masonramsey just crowd-surfed on an inflatable horse at Nashville’s EXIT_IN pic.twitter.com/KnnjsVsSbU

— Dave Paulson (@ItsDavePaulson) April 25, 2019

His next hit post yodeling at Walmart fame was off his debut album Twang, featuring the single "Before I Knew It." The song circulated quietly until 2022, when people on TikTok rediscovered his music.

This was around the time he was working at a local Subway chain, and people were really endeared by the fact that the Yodeling Kid had to make ends meet like the rest of us, despite his multiple Ellen appearances.

@masonramsey #duet with @tpose_queen ♬ Before I Knew It – Mason Ramsey

Mason Ramsey continued to post updates about his life after his Subway days were done, releasing his next EP, Falls Into Place in 2023, playing a sold-out show in New York City that same year, while proving to fans that he could still yodel just as good as he did in 2018.

This is around the time Ramsey really stepped up his social media game, putting out slick videos that elicited scores of comments like, "Wait, the yodeling kid glow'd up?"

Mason Ramsey is about 19 years old currently, and he's now dedicated to pursuing music full-time. He released his full-length album I'll See You In My Dreams in 2024, and even got a chance to perform his single "Blue Over You" with dreampop icon Lana Del Rey during her concert in Fenway Park in Boston on June 20th, 2024.

He's still touring and performing in 2025, but he returns to his yodeling roots time and again, as seen in this July 2025 clip in which he and fellow singers Jonathan Kiltin and Anthony Gargiuala harmonize over "Lovesick Blues," the song that first catapulted Ramsey to fame.

You can keep up with Mason Ramsey on his Instagram page @masonramsey, where he mostly posts video content on Reels. He's also got a very active TikTok page under the same username.

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For the full history of the Walmart Yodeling Kid, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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