Cape Breton teen goes viral for Johnny Cash karaoke

A Cape Breton teen goes viral singing a Johnny Cash song at Karaoke.

Ann MacQuarrie wanted a quiet night; instead she became a viral sensation.

“I was on my way home from school, I was with my dad, and my mom called and said she was at the tavern and she wanted us to go and sing karaoke,” explained MacQuarrie.

“I was kind of tired. It was late-ish, and at first I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to go.’ And then we’re like, okay, we’ll go. And I was just going to eat and then leave. But she was like, ‘No, you have to sing a song.’

“I was like, ‘Well, I’ll sing, but if I’m going to sing, I’m singing Johnny Cash.’”

She fired up “One Piece at a Time.” It wasn’t long before it hit the internet and became a sensation.

“I remember calling my brother who lives away, I was going to tell him and he already knew. He was like, ‘Yeah, like, this is crazy,’” laughed MacQuarrie.

“And then we were just checking in throughout the day being like ‘It’s now at this,’ it was going up like crazy. Like, every time I would check in, it would be like 50,000 more views.”

At just under 900,000 views, they are pushing for a million, with the tavern resurfacing the video.

But even though the conversation around her died off a bit, it never fully went away.

“I was at the hospital in Baddeck,” she said. “It’s not really where I’m at and I don’t go there very often. I don’t know anyone there. And someone came up to me – two people actually – and were like, ‘Oh, are you the Johnny Cash girl?’ And I was just, like, I guess so.

“Then I was up in the valley visiting one of my friends and we were just in the parking lot of Lawton’s, and someone else came over to me and they were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I watched your video all the time. I just love it. And I show my boys and they’re asking why you watch me so many times over and over,’ and so yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

MacQuarrie still can’t believe the video has reached this level of popularity.

“It’s definitely cool,” she said. I’m really surprised that it happened with that song, because that’s not something that I would normally do. So it’s pretty funny that that’s how it happened.

“But that’s the internet, I guess.”

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page