Before Violet Burdick ever appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she had already made a name for herself on the Internet. Despite being only five years old, Violet was quite the singer and knew how to capture the attention of her audience. As it turns out, Violet was raised by her father, Ryan Burdick, a local musician who made sure that Violet was involved in music from a very young age – because of his dedication to music, Violet has gained a lot of attention for her awesome singing skills.
Violet’s parents did not know, but the little girl’s aunt sent the video of her singing to the producers of Ellen’s show. When Ryan received a call from the show, he was shocked, to say the least. But as the man who had spent his life nurturing the little girl’s singing abilities, he shouldn’t have been too surprised that his daughter’s voice would become a viral sensation. Before Ryan knew it, the producers of The Ellen Show had booked Violet for an upcoming appearance. That meant daddy’s little girl would be showcasing her singing skills for the nation to see.
During their appearance on the talk show, Violet and her dad talked about how much they loved Dolly Parton.
The Imagination Library is Dolly’s dream of spreading literacy amongst children. Dolly put her dream into reality as she currently sends out over one million books a month. In November of 2020, the Imagination Library sent out 1,707,049 books.
When the conversation was over, Ellen wanted to hear young Violet sing. What better song to choose than one of Dolly Parton’s own classics? As her dad strummed away on the guitar, Violet began to belt out the lyrics to Parton’s hit “Joleen”.
Violet wowed the audience, and the video of her performance soon went viral. But the good times were not over. When the father-daughter duo finished performing, Ellen gave them one last surprise-an all-expenses-paid vacation to Dollywood in Tennessee.
Now, Ryan plans to teach Violet to play an instrument so she can accompany her own singing. And maybe one day she’ll return to Ellen’s show.
“That’s one nice thing about the show. They follow up with the child performers and see them later on and how they have progressed. That is fun,” Ryan said.
