When Christian Shelton sings, you don’t just hear his voice, you feel it. A heartbreak on a sullen morning, a mother’s warm embrace, a raging storm; he takes you through it all.
Born in Las Vegas, Shelton found his love for singing, and honed his proficiency in the art form, at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts.
“I used to be so nervous to sing in front of people,” he says, “but the excitement of getting through that, and the rush you’d get after a performance — that’s really what made me want to keep singing.”
In 2018, a high school choir teacher recommended Shelton pursue music at UNLV and take opera lessons with Alfonse Anderson, a professor of voice. Shelton enrolled as a vocal performance major in 2019 and, since then, has become a multifaceted singer, capable of singing both contemporary and opera music.
“His natural vocal talent is really fantastic,” Anderson says. “It’s very much a part of him, and not something he had to contrive to make. To watch him develop, his voice at 23 — it’s quite profound.”
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shelton started cultivating his now-considerable social media following. He currently has more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, 50,000 followers on Instagram, and close to 1 million all-time views on his YouTube channel. In short-form videos, Shelton performs a plethora of songs — from Ariana Grande’s whistle-tone soprano to Richard Strauss’s German opera.
It was Shelton’s social media popularity that caught the eye of an ad agency seeking a singer for a 2021 Super Bowl commercial for the hiring platform Indeed. In the commercial, Shelton sings a rendition of Andra Day’s “Rise Up.” For an estimated audience of 90 million, his falsetto peaks and soulful runs brought to life the motivational anthem about moving mountains and persevering when the world seems to be against you.
“The song is really special to me,” Shelton says. “At the time of that commercial, it was early 2021, and in 2020 we had the Black Lives Matter movement, and that was really an anthem for so many people during that time.”
Shelton is currently back at UNLV and plans to pursue his master’s degree in vocal performance after getting his bachelor’s earlier this spring.
As for what the next 10 years might look like, he says, “I see myself singing, as a recording artist and a live performer in all facets of music.”
“In high school, I remember I did a presentation on why everyone should sing, and people who sing at any level, amateurs to professionals, are happier. Something about singing brings out positivity in you and through you to everyone else.”
That aligns with how Anderson sees Shelton as a human being.
“He’s very giving,” Anderson says. “Sometimes, ego gets so big. (Shelton) is never like that — he’s grateful. And that gratitude, for a talent and a gift, is very unusual. That’s not normal.”
