The world fell in love with Roslyn and Ray Singleton’s love when a video of the former singing to the latter went viral.
In the touching video, the Charlotte, North Carolina, the man sings Daniel Caesar’s “Get You” while playing the piano. His wife was sitting next to him with a wide grin on her face. It went viral, amassing more than 16,000 views. It even caught Caesar’s attention, and he invited the pair to Coachella.
Ray, 30, wishes there was an extravagant explanation for the video, but in reality he just wanted to comfort the love of his life.
“I’ve always heard that every woman wants their man to sing to them,” he told Atlanta Black Star. “God gave me the gift of singing so I just wanted to make her feel good. I wanted to make her smile.”
Ray singing to his love isn’t a new thing. It’s a normal part of life for the Singletons.
“So the actual video of me singing is just us being us. Me singing to her and us just enjoying ourselves,” Ray added.
It was originally thought Ray was singing to Ros ahead of her surgery for brain cancer last month, but the original video was actually filmed and posted in August. Ray added it to a compilation video and reposted it last month as a gift to his wife. Roslyn went into surgery on Jan. 7, and her 37th birthday was Jan. 16. After Ray posted on his Instagram account, he sent the video to The Shade Room so she could get a birthday shoutout. The two, who both work at car dealerships, were not expecting it to go viral.
“From there, it went crazy,” Ray shared. “I almost cried and passed out when Daniel Caesar’s manager reached out and invited us to Coachella! Like, what??! It still hasn’t registered with us that we’re going to Coachella. Still can’t believe it.”
The Singletons’ love story started almost four years ago with a chance encounter at a party in 2016. Neither one of them were particularly thrilled to be there, but they made the best of it. Ray’s fashion choices caught Roslyn’s attention, but not in the way one would think.
“At the party, somehow, the star aligned, and we ended up being on the escalator at the same time. Ray was going down the escalator and I was coming up,” Roslyn recalled. “The venue we were in was very dimly lit, and for some reason Ray had on sunglasses.”
Ros pointed the glasses out to her homegirl and Ray heard her, but he wasn’t insulted.
“He heard me and said ‘I’ll be back for you in 35 seconds,’” she continued.
“He literally went to the bathroom and came back and I was standing on the dance floor. He came back to me on the dance floor and asked if I wanted to dance.”
She declined but they had a conversation and exchanged numbers. The rest is history or as Roslyn put it, “we’ve been together every day since.”
In October 2019, Roslyn was diagnosed with brain cancer for a second time. The first occurred in 2013, before she met Ray, and went into remission following treatment. Roslyn found out when she went in for a routine checkup keep track of her progress. She didn’t expect the doctor to find anything and figured the appointment would be uneventful. After she got the news, she had to figure out how to break it to her husband. The news came a couple weeks before their one-year wedding anniversary on Nov. 4.
“I knew I had to let Ray know as gently as possible. Not that he couldn’t handle it but just because, psychologically, I’ve been there,” she told us. “I’ve had brain surgery. I kinda know what to expect.”
Ray took the news like a champ.
“I just called him and I said, ‘I need to talk to you.’ I FaceTimed him and I told him I just left the doctor and this is what’s going on,” Roslyn said. “His words to me were “okay. We can get through it.”
The couple has taken the diagnosis with stride. There are good and bad days but the couple credits positive thinking, love and God for getting them through.
“You have to put everything you know about the situation, the good, the bad [and] the ugly, you have to put it in God’s hands and just let it go,” Roslyn said. She also credits her husband for being her rock as she navigates this process.
“There’s a part in the video when I’m lying in the bed and he’s rubbing my head. He was singing Bob Marley’s ‘Everything Is Gonna Be Alright.’ That’s the last thing I remember before I went into surgery,” she recalled. “His voice singing to me is the last thing I remember before I went into surgery. When I got out of surgery, the first thing I remember is “Hey gorgeous” and him rubbing my hand.”
Ray sees his wife as a “warrior” and knew he had to keep that same energy. He encourages any man facing a similar situation to do the same.
“Whatever she needs you to be, be that times 100. Step outside of yourself,” he advised. “There’s times when I’m tired and I don’t want to be positive and I don’t wanna smile and laugh but it’s not about me. I gotta make sure my rib is good.”
The beautiful ebb and flow of their relationship can be attributed to the example set by their parents. Now, they want to set the same example for other couples.
“I see all these comments saying ‘where did you get him from? Did you make him in a factory or something?’ I’m like what are all of these other dudes doing? Do you not want to see your lady smile?” Ray said.
“Do you not want to take care of her? What’s happening out there? Once I realized we are a symbol of Black love, a symbol of power now we gotta show the world.”
