The marching band from Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery will add to its fame this week with an appearance on reality TV.
The band, which has received national attention and been featured in viral videos on social media, will perform on Tuesday’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.” At the time of filming, the nearly all-Black ensemble was led by a white drum major, Justin Heideman, whose nickname is “Vanilla Funk.”
The band from Jeff Davis is one of several contestants set for Tuesday’s episode of the NBC reality series. They’ll be trying to please judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara and Eric Stonestreet in this round. If all goes well, the band will compete for a $1 million prize.
Tuesday marks the seventh and final auditions episode of the season, all of which were filmed in advance. Contestants who’ve been buzzed through the initial round of “America’s Got Talent” move on to a phase known as the judge cuts, which will be trimmed this season to a single episode. After that, the remaining acts typically compete during the live shows. ”America’s Got Talent” is still figuring out logistics for its live shows due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There’s no word yet on what the band from Alabama will perform on Tuesday’s program, and we haven’t seen spoiler info on how the ensemble fared with the judges.
We do know, however, that the band from Jefferson Davis High School earned acclaim in fall 2019, after videos of performances led by Heideman were showcased -- and applauded -- by social media personality @PubbyLongway.
Longway said he discovered the initial video of Heideman performing with the band on Facebook, according to a report by Andre Toran of the Montgomery Advertiser.
“I was just chilling, and I had videos just running,” Longway said. “Next thing you know I left the room, and I heard some band stuff playing, and I like band music, because I was in band myself. So, I said, ‘Let me go back and listen to that.’ I ran back to my room and I saw Justin. I was like ‘What!? It’s a white boy leading the pack.’”
The videos showcased by Longway have received more than 4 million views, the Advertiser said, but there’s also been a substantial backlash. Critics said the video downplayed three other drum majors for the band, all of whom are Black, and gave undue praise to the single white member of the ensemble.
Heideman had the support of his bandmates, however, and they said he earned the job of lead drum major through hard work and talent.
“When you get to looking on the internet, everybody is slandering him,” Dominic Williams, one of the other drum majors, told the Montgomery Advertiser. “Saying, ‘What is he doing as a white head drum major leading a Black band?’ To me, (his race) really doesn’t faze me, but as to see people talk about him, it’s stupid. Justin, all the things he went through, all the trials and tribulations that he took to become the person he is, a lot of people don’t see that side of him, because they just see him on the internet.”
Heideman, who graduated from Jeff Davis this spring, has announced that he’ll attend Alabama State University in the fall to play trumpet in the Mighty Marching Hornets band. He might even try to become a drum major there.
In the meantime, though, Heideman will make his reality TV debut with his high school comrades. “America’s Got Talent airs at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday on NBC.
Justin Heideman, a drum major who went viral recently, leads his Jeff Davis High band down Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Ala. during the annual Turkey Day Classic parade on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 28 2019. (Kirsten Fiscus/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)AP
Note: The Montgomery County Board of Education is scheduled to consider a proposal to change the names of three high schools, including Jefferson Davis, on Tuesday night. The schools, all of which have a majority Black student enrollment, are named after people associated with the Confederacy. The other two are named after Robert E. Lee and Sidney Lanier.
