Jesse Rya Was Just Strumming His Guitar When Magic Happened, Now He’s A Viral Sensation

Jesse Rya is a Dallas, Texas, musician and songwriter — and now, thanks to two random guys who just happen to have golden voices, he’s an internet superstar as well. This video, taken by a fourth random guy, Jaime Tatos Maldonado, went live on YouTube on March 17. By the early morning of March 20, it had racked up more than 4 million views.

When you watch it, you’ll understand why.

Jesse Rya was playing his guitar, and singing one of his original songs, outside a Kroger Supermarket in Dallas when Maldonado walked on his way to pick up some groceries. But he liked the funky little number Jesse Rya was strumming out his acoustic guitar, so he whipped out his cell phone and recorded a video.

He got far more than a good song on video. These other two young men are equally taken by the Jesse Rya tune — and they join in, improvising their own lyrics and joining in some amazing harmonies.

Of course, this being the internet, even a viral video like this one has its “truthers.” As the view counter ticker upward, and more upward, commenters on line questioned whether the whole musical miracle was staged.

“So staged, can clearly see they practiced all the lyrics to the song never missed a word,” said one.

“Obviously staged, still good, just don’t lie about it,” said another doubter.

But Jesse Rya himself took to Facebook to note, “just for the record… It’s not a Jimmy Kimmel setup and i do not know the other 2 gentlemen in the video.”

It took internet sleuths some digging to uncover the identity of the guy with the guitar as Jesse Rya. The names of the other two spontaneous crooners in the video have not turned up yet.

Check out the Jesse Rya video and see what you think. Real deal? Or rehearsed? We want to believe the former, because this moment is sheer magic.