Blake Shelton Surprises Mother-and-Daughter Nurses Fighting Coronavirus on ‘Today’

Blake Shelton appeared on the Today show on Thursday for a special surprise, performing for mother-and-daughter nurses from New Orleans to help lift their spirits. New Orleans nursing assistant Bridgette Robinson spent weeks on a ventilator last month while fighting the coronavirus, and her daughter Sylvia Johnson continued to go to work as a nurse at Ochsner North Shore, a hospital outside of New Orleans.

“It definitely was scary and heartbreaking,” Johnson said. “Especially the fact that she’s my best friend.” Johnson received updates on her mom’s condition from her colleagues during Robinson’s battle with the disease, and when she was released from the hospital, the staff lined the hallway to clap for her as she was wheeled out, wiping tears from her eyes. In a voiceover, Hoda Kotb shared that she wanted to give Robinson a “really special thank-you surprise,” which she revealed on a video call with Robinson and Johnson. “All I could think about is my grandson,” Robinson told Kotb when asked where she found her strength to fight the disease. “He was like, ‘Grandma, I need you, I love you, I need you grandma.’ I was thinking, ‘My baby’s saying he needs me… and I gotta get back to him.” Johnson told Kotb that she thinks her mom healed because of God. “God, prayers and her fight for life,” she said.

“You keep speaking about God, and we were trying to figure out, what could we give you?” Kotb said. “We didn’t really know what to give you because you’re so amazing, and then we thought, ‘What about a song? And what about a song that speaks to you and the way you’ve just been speaking to us?’ And then we thought, ‘Who could that person be? Who would be good to serenade these beautiful ladies?’ And then we thought, ‘How about a hunky guy named Blake Shelton?’”

At that point, Shelton appeared on the call, joking, “I’m available if that’s cool with you.” “Everything about this disease, you guys are out on the front lines fighting it and now you’re a survivor of it,” he told them. “You got each other and that’s literally what this is all about. Literally a light shining bright on that screen right there, it’s awesome to meet both of you guys.” Before performing an acoustic version of “God Gave Me You,” Shelton explained that he chose the song because “I heard you guys talking and you keep throwing it back to God and I love hearing you say that. I want to dedicate this song from me to you guys as nurses and being out there on the front lines, but I think this song really speaks to your relationship with each other, if you ask me.”