Country Duo Haley & Michaels Take the 49ers Field [WATCH]

Rising country duo and Bay area natives, Haley & Michaels scored big as they took to the field for a Monday Night Football performance earlier this month during halftime at the San Francisco 49ers game. Performing their current single and the Niners official anthem of the season, “Hail Mary,” while decked out in personalized gear was a win unlike many others for the married duo. Though this was their first time performing to a packed Levi’s Stadium, they had been there before. The official music video for “Hail Mary” was shot and produced by the team, and it was filmed inside the stadium highlighting the energetic and empowering song that the 49ers deemed their official theme song for the 2019-2020 season. Watch their live performance and music video for “Hail Mary” below, and find out just how the performance went down with words from Shannon Haley & Ryan Michaels on their experience.

You’ve performed at Levi’s Stadium before – shooting the “Hail Mary” music video – but what was it like to perform to a packed Niners crowd?

It was an absolute thrill playing for that packed crowd! It was so surreal because the first half of the game we were just there as fans going crazy over the Niners’ amazing game and there were so many incredible plays that there were moments we totally forgot we were there to perform, too! So walking out on that field with the crowd all pumped up and with us being in total disbelief about being there, it felt like one second and it was over! It was definitely the most fun we’ve ever had!

Both originally being from the Bay Area, what did 49ers football mean to you growing up? Did you ever imagine you would end up performing on the field?

The 49ers have always been a huge part of our lives. As far back as we can both remember, every week during football season we’d watch the games with our families. A team like the 49ers makes you believe in something greater and it’s not just about sports; it’s about watching people push themselves to their limits and overcome all odds to get where they are. We’ve always been passionate about the backstories of the players, and the chemistry between the teams. We grew up watching players like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott and Steve Young and those were the years we knew first. There’s a lot of nostalgia there, a lot of good memories of childhood and family and some of the most meaningful times centered around the games. If we could go back and tell 9-year-old Shannon and Ryan that one day we’d meet each other and then play our music on the field at halftime of Monday Night Football…we would have never been able to comprehend that type of dream coming true!

You performed your current single “Hail Mary” which happens to be the 49ers official theme song for the 2019-2020 season. How did this partnership come about?

We were on a flight for our radio tour and we got an email from Al Guido, the President of the team, inviting us to come to Levi’s Stadium to meet the front office. We had shared the song with a friend of ours who used to work at the team, and one thing led to another and apparently the song got passed around. We had no idea what to expect, but when we got there everyone was so incredibly welcoming. They had our logo up on the stadium boards. It was so overwhelming! After we got a tour, we sat down and talked about ways to work together and we told them it would be our dream to have our hometown team that we grew up loving, be a part of the song “Hail Mary”. They are a cutting-edge team with adventurous spirits, and we are so grateful for that because they were totally up for it! In addition to playing halftime at Monday Night Football, we ended up shooting a music video for “Hail Mary” at Levi’s Stadium which was directed by the team’s incredibly talented VP, Rob Alberino, and produced by the 49ers Studios team.

What was the original inspiration behind the song and has the meaning transformed in any way?

We originally wrote this song about overcoming challenges in our lives, especially with regards to the music industry. We wanted to write about facing adversities but not going down without a fight, no matter what’s in your way. Because we are such big football fans, “Hail Mary” seemed to be the perfect way to capture the spirit of how we were feeling. So while we have references to throwing a “Hail Mary” in the song, at that time the song was mostly about our journey in music. The song was always meant to be inspiring and rallying. But singing it now, after playing that game and shooting the music video, it’s changed it from being a song about our struggles to a song about our dreams coming true, so it’s become even more exciting for us to sing.

What was your biggest takeaway from this whole experience?

Our journey together in music has had its ups and downs. The difficult times are what we wrote this song about. To think that this song is also the song that changed our lives is really cool for us. In a way we have been living out the lyrics to our song during this period of time in our lives. This experience has really shown us that if you just keep showing up, keep being persistent and going after what you believe in, no matter how many times it hasn’t worked out or how many obstacles might be in your way, doors can open that can change your life when you least expect them to and lead to places that are truly beyond your wildest dreams!