Stadium Series TikTok Tailgate dream come true for country star Hayes

The NHL is getting Fancy Like.

Country music singer Walker Hayes is performing on the TikTok Tailgate Stage at The NHL Pregame ahead of the 2022 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series between the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning in Nashville on Saturday.
The performance will be available exclusively on TikTok starting at 5:30 ET.
If you told Hayes a year ago that he'd be playing at the first outdoor NHL game in Nashville, he'd call your bluff.
"Just being involved in something of this caliber is still very new to me," Hayes told NHL.com "'Fancy Like' -- the song that exploded my career -- is not even a year old. For [me], my wife and kids, especially playing a show like this involved with the NHL, these are dreams coming true for us."
Hayes released the song in June 2021. It gained popularity on TikTok after Hayes posted a video of him and his 16-year-old daughter Lela capering original choreography to the tune. Since Hayes pressed 'post' on June 13, 2021, the video garnered 34.8 million views and 2.5 million likes, bolstering a whopping 296 million streams of the song in 2021, according to Music Row.
"TikTok for me was not a selfish ambition," Hayes said. "It was a space where my daughter and I could bond, and we love to dance."

The song celebrates relishing in the reasonably priced, such as a family dinner at Applebee's or a walk around the Truly Hard Seltzer NHL Pregame in Nissan Stadium's parking lot with a hot dog in hand.
"I would imagine the bulk of hockey fans, they live this song," Hayes said.
For the Hayes family, the song is more non-fiction than not. Hayes said it was his way of telling the world he's not that fancy, and that's OK.
Team Hayes will be in full attendance for their dad's performance, likely spearheading a small flash mob of family-founded TikTok dances.
"On a pro-sports level, my wife and kids, any chance we get to attend any pro event, we're there," Hayes said. "We're the first people to get there and we're the last people to leave. This is just an opportunity for me to do a little work and be there too."
Hayes said one of the main draws of Nashville is the professional sports scene. Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, the 42-year-old didn't get to regularly experience a thriving hockey town but is glad he and his kids -- who live in Thompson's Station, a town right outside Nashville -- now get to. None of the Hayes kids play hockey, but whenever they can, they jump at the chance to hit the ice. While they're sometimes skating, they're always dancing.

For a family that loves to dance, Nashville's unrivaled country music landscape is a bonus, too.
"In my opinion, it's something Nashville has that is very unique to offer, which is access to artists like me," he said. "There are so many artists here that the world loves and they're just local here. Nashville is their home. I think it's a great draw to our community and it sets our city apart. You got all these pro teams, you got the NHL Stadium Series and then, not only do you have that, but you have artists with the draw."

Besides from Hayes' live show at TikTok Tailgate Stage at The NHL Pregame, fans can watch him exclusively on the League's TikTok account (@NHL). The Tailgate Stage is a main feature of the NHL's new partnership with TikTok, focused on giving fans exclusive video content behind players' perspectives, personal styles and personalities -- all things 'per.' It will debut on Saturday and, three weeks later, travel to the 2022 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic.
"There is this level of excitement where it's like, I still don't really feel like I belong on stages like this, but once I get up there and I start playing, I'm like, 'Man, now people love these songs and they've embraced me and that's why I'm able to do this,'" Hayes said.
Exposing fans to more of his music is a goal while playing in front of an audience. Even though Hayes said the song "AA" "slays live," the crowd loses control when dawned by the "Fancy Like" beat. During Hayes' 2-minute and 40-second chart-topper, the crowd is known to double, turn heads and raise phones to the air to record the song Hayes deemed he owes "the rest of his life" to.
His success stemmed from a seemingly perfect cocktail, of equal parts relatable message, upbeat tune, learnable dance and direct-to-consumer nature of a dance app.
"Without Tik Tok, I don't know if my songs would have ever proven themselves, and the reason was that Tik Tok allowed us to get music directly to the fans," Hayes said.

He added that before TikTok, his music was a harder sell to traditional outlets. Streaming platforms put parameters on Hayes' music or rejected him unsure if it would be a hit. After posting his first TikTok on Nov. 25, 2019, Hayes took out the middle man and appealed to anyone who could hear his music. Nearly three million TikTok followers later, he found his niche.
"I obviously came to Nashville to chase a dream, but TikTok is where it all really blew up," he said.
Besides from a Walker Hayes fan, hockey and "Fancy Like" have one thing in common: They're fun.
"The song and the dance just had this beautiful marriage," Hayes said. "It just went together. It's like the world needed to hear something like that. Something fun."
And yes, a Bourbon Street steak with an Oreo shake is Hayes' real Applebee's order.
Photo: Robert Chavers