Toddler Gets Emotional over ‘Say Something’ Song
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ABC News(DALLAS) — With lyrics like, “I’m giving up on you,” it’s no surprise that the song “Say Something” by music duo A Great Big World is a song destined to pull at one’s heartstrings.
What is surprising is that the song could inspire an emotional breakdown in a boy who’s only 4 years old.
“We were in the car for about five minutes and the song came on,” said Mark Blitch, the father of 4-year-old Jackson. “He recognized it and said, ‘That’s the sad song,’ and started getting a little weepy so like any good dad I turned it off and he said, ‘No, turn it back on,’ so I turned it back on.”
Blitch, 31, who works for a non-profit video production company in Dallas, also turned on his phone to record his son’s surprising reaction to the song, which catapulted to a number one hit after Christina Aguilera performed it with A Great Big World on The Voice last November.
“I thought I’m going to capture this just to see if there’s anything here to show my wife later,” Blitch said. “And the rest is all there.”
The one-minute video, which Blitch posted to YouTube, shows Jackson crying and saying it is a “sad song” before giving his dad the thumbs-up to let him know he is okay.
Blitch, who describes his son as an emotional kid, said Jackson later asked his parents to upload the song so he could hear it again, and that led to his parents discovering why the song made Jackson upset.
“That night when I uploaded it he asked at bedtime to play it again and for us to sing it and he started crying,” Blitch said. “We asked him why it made him sad and he said, ‘The song says I can’t get to you and it makes me sad that you and mommy won’t get to me when I’m crying.’”
“He’s usually a very emotional guy and can usually really articulate why,” said Blitch, who added Jackson now loves hearing the song and even smiles when it plays.
Blitch said he posted the video to YouTube to try to catch the attention of Aguilera and A Great Big World, but it has instead made his son a viral star, with more than 200,000 views and counting.
“I wanted to make sure that Christina saw it and the band saw it – that was me aiming high – and then it just took off,” Blitch said. “I think people like seeing that type of raw emotion in someone who can’t control it or really understand what it is. There’s something intrinsic in him that gets stirred at something and you can’t teach that.”
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