Ryan Wirtz dedicates song to his mom, Jeralyn

This is Jeri & Mike's son, Ryan. I wanted to share the backstory on the song I sang at my Mom’s Celebration of Life— For years my mom was unofficially my “momager” and was very instrumental in my career and songs that I could sing. She found a song that she absolutely loved. Unfortunately I didn’t love it. I told her it wasn’t my style, it’s too cheesy, etc. and for 2 years straight she kept trying to convince me to sing this song, and she would always say— “you should listen to me. I’m telling you, this is the song.” I entered a huge singing competition and the prize was $3,000, a big screen TV and a spot in the Rose Parade. I was really excited but I had to prepare several songs and for whatever reason I didn’t have a big finale song. So of course, my mom brings up this song again that she loves and she tells me, “please sing this because you will win the whole thing.” I don’t know why, but for whatever reason I finally agreed and said yes. The day of the competition my mom was really under the weather and she couldn’t go, which never happened because she went to every performance…. so imagine the joy that I felt when I called her on the phone and told her I won the entire competition. And the first thing she said to me was “I told you so” and the second thing she said was “I’m so proud of you!” It’s very poetic to me that the one song I hated has become one of the most beautiful songs in my life because everything about it reminds me of my mom, Jeralyn. And sadly, that day of the competition was the one and only time I ever sang this song, so my mom was never able to hear me sing it live. The song is called “My Baby You” and I decided to sing it at her Celebration of Life because I felt my mom in the room that day. I sang it for you, mom 💛💜