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Fayetteville Teacher Attends Grammy’s

A Fayetteville High School teacher walked the red carpet to the Grammy awards show Sunday (Jan. 26) after winning an internet music popularity contest. Barrett ...

A Fayetteville High School teacher walked the red carpet to the Grammy awards show Sunday (Jan. 26) after winning an internet music popularity contest.

Barrett Baber, 33, won the Grammy Gig of a Lifetime contest. His prize was an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to perform at Club Nokia in front of thousands of people on Jan. 23. He opened for California-based The Neighbourhood.

See the performance here.

"All these people had never heard of me before and never heard my music before," Baber said. "But, I think they responded well to it and I think we made a lot of fans."

Supporters of Baber turned to the internet and watched the concert on Grammy Live at 1 p.m. on the day of the Grammy's.

"It is really amazing, people getting together to watch and support me and I’m really humbled by that," he said.

Baber said he got to tour the Staples Center the day before the awards show and witnessed Paul McCartney do a sound-check.

"It has been an incredible experience and one that I’ll never, ever forget," he said.

A fan of Baber's music submitted a video of the song 'Drop-Dead Red Head' to the contest and he said it became serious when he made the top 40.

"It became real to me when the people of our community there in Northwest Arkansas really got behind me and started to support me," Baber said.

Baber teaches debate and forensics at the high school. He said he couldn't have won the contest without the help of his co-workers and students.

"They really got behind me and I mean it’s hard to beat somebody when they have an army of teenagers with cell phones behind them and so I owe them a lot," he said.

The country, blues and rock musician has performed all over Arkansas for the last 15 years. He said it took a lot of work and dedication to get to where he is at today.

A concert is scheduled at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Jan. 28) at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. The set list will be the same as the one at the Grammy Gig of a Lifetime show, Baber said.

Baber is a survivor of the American Airlines flight 1420 crash in 1999.

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