Kameron Ross stands next to drag queen Alyssa Edwards behind the scenes of the Sway music video. Photo courtesy of Eriana Ruiz.
Kameron Ross knew he was meant to be a country singer after he saw his first concert — Shania Twain at the Houston Rodeo — at eight years old.
Throughout his school years, Ross’s parents would drive to music venues in Texas, Louisiana and other surrounding states, for any opportunity to get Ross on stage. But Ross eventually decided to take a break from his music career after juggling his passion with college and a corporate job.
But five years ago that break came to an end, and Ross has only been gaining speed since.
In 2020, Ross was a crowd favorite on America’s Got Talent where he made the top 35 contestants. The country singer connected with audience’s through his story of identifying as a gay artist in a music genre that is typically seen as more conservative. During his audition, Simon Cowell interrupted Ross’s singing and asked Ross to sing a second song acapella.
“My audition was amazing. Getting the feedback from the judges, like Simon was like my biggest advocate,” Ross said. “The whole Hollywood aspect of everything and filming on the lots at NBC was probably one of the coolest things ever. You just get to experience all of it. And I felt like I made some of my best friends from the show as well.”
Earlier this summer, Ross released a new song and music video which he hails as “the biggest and proudest moment” of his music career yet.
The song, “Sway,” is a feel good song about letting loose, being yourself and letting go, Ross said.
And the song’s music video drives that message home.
In the music video, Ross begins performing the song “Sway” in a country bar full of apprehensive looking cowboys. The video was shot at The Round Up Saloon on Cedar Springs Road, as Ross wanted to pay homage to Dallas as much as possible.
As Ross continues to sing, a fleet of drag queens in sparkly, Western wear show the cowboys how to have a good time through a dance off and other bar-related competitions. By the end of the video, the queens have disappeared and two cowboys are left slow dancing in the room.
“We have everything going on in the world right now, it’s just super tough at times. And so with that going on, (I) have so many friends that are drag queens, and so it was important for us to have drag queens in here,” Ross said. “They bring so much joy to so many people, so that was a huge message. We wanted to be like drag queens are great, they kick ass.”
While Ross may star in the music video’s vocal role, Alyssa Edwards — a mesquite born drag queen who rose to fame as a fan favorite in the show RuPaul’s Drag Race — acts as his coach before and after the performance. Ross said Edwards’ role was that of a “fairy godmother” who gave him the courage to sing to the crowd.
“Alyssa is a really good friend of mine. We’ve been friends for a number of years now,” Ross said. “When we came up with the idea for the music video, we had this vision of Alyssa Edwards as the fairy godmother in the music video, and she fits the role 100% with where we went with it. And it is so good and so iconic.”
Ross plans to release two other songs this summer, and each will tap into his passion for exploring and merging other genres with country music.
One song, “Sounds like love,” is what Ross describes as a windows down summer song. The other, “I can’t forget him,” will be slower and merge country and folk sounds.
And while Ross isn’t a full time musician just yet, he doesn’t see another break from music coming anytime soon.
