Sarah Doran began developing interests in singing under the tutelage of Candy Chamberlain’s choir class at Mae Hensley Junior High School over two decades ago.

Now she’s finding success as a rising performer and just in time for Valentine’s Day is poised to release a love ballad on a number of streaming platforms.

The former Sarah Snyder wrote, “Baby, I Do” which she performed at her October wedding to husband Dalton. Little did she suspect that when the solo was recorded and posted on social media, the song went viral, amassing 4.5 million views on TikTok and a million views on Instagram (under the username of @heysarahdoran).

After receiving an avalanche of emails from brides wanting to use her original song for their 2026 weddings, Doran decided to record it professionally in a studio and release it as a debut single this Friday, February 13 in time for Valentine’s Day which falls on Saturday.

The song will be available on iTunes, Google Play, Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon.

Doran explained that the song was crafted because 

Dalton wanted her to sing at the wedding but she felt it would be “super cringy” and considered that it might go viral for the wrong reasons.

“That’s a lot of pressure but I kind of started secretly thinking in my mind, okay, is there a way that I could make this work? I’m not sure.”

None of the songs she previously wrote for him would work in a wedding setting, she felt, so she began writing a new one last summer here and there, in the car, and at home in her free time.

Completed in September, Sarah liked how it turned out, felt confident that she could pull it off and the song found its first audience at their wedding at Stevinson’s Rustic Hill Ranch.

A video of her performing it at the keyboard went viral when posted online. Brides soon began contacting her for copies to play at their weddings. She made accommodations for a bride in Grand Rapids, Michigan to use her song in a wedding last Saturday.

“I was able to get an early copy of the song over to her, “said Doran. “Such a ‘pinch me’ moment.”

At least 10 asked her to sing at their weddings but nobody has offered to pay her expenses if it requires travel.

“I have would have to be, you know, compensated in some way. Honestly, if it was a local thing, I would 100 percent do it for free because it would just be really cool to do my own song. But nothing panned out yet for me to actually go fly out and perform it somewhere.”

Doran said she made enough money from the TikTok video to pay for the production and recording costs. It was recorded at Tone Frequency Studios in San Jose and produced with the assistance of Nashville producer Kenny Schick.

Doran was born and raised in Turlock but attended kindergarten through sixth grades at Sam Vaughn Elementary School and seventh and eighth grades at Mae Hensley Jr. High School in Ceres since her parents, Jon and Anne Snyder both worked for Ceres Unified School District. Jon Snyder taught seventh grade world history at Mae Hensley before retiring in 2020 and passing away in 2021. Anne taught kindergarten, first and third grades at Walter White before transitioning to the district office in 2005 and retiring at the end of 2021.

Sarah eventually moved onto Pittman High School in Turlock where she graduated.

Doran said her mother has been a huge encouragement and said her father would be joyous over her musical advancements.

“He would have been excited. He was a local musician as well so this would have been really, really exciting for him, I know.”

Doran tried out as a contestant for season 21 of American Idol in 2023 and received a “golden ticket” at her audition after performing her original song, “Wildflower,” in front of Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. She advanced into the top 40.

“I was terrified,” remembers the Modesto resident.

She made it through the first four rounds but got cut right before the live show.

“That was a really cool experience. It was the first time I had ever done anything like that. It just kind of felt like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I had gotten actually reached out to by a casting director and so that’s how I kind of got into the process. It kind of just fell in my lap.”

She remembers feeling intimated as she was surrounded by the other talented contestants striving to get on the show.

“It was it was a really good experience, really pushed me kind of creatively to be like, okay, let’s take this little bit more seriously. Let’s keep writing and, you know, gain a little bit more confidence, do some local gigs, all that.

“They loved me, they loved my music, but there was kind of a confidence missing. And so it kind of knocked me off my feet for a little bit because I really was like, ‘Oh, what if I make it? What if something comes of this?’ And nothing really major came with it other than a really cool experience, but it really gave me that creative push to be like, okay, what do we want my music to sound like? What is my identity as an artist and, to keep pursuing that?”

Locally Doran has found success performing and in 2018 won the “Valley’s Got Talent” competition at

the Gallo Center for the Arts. She also was asked last minute to perform a three-hour set at the Stanislaus County Fair last summer, singing her own songs and cover songs from other artists like Fleetwood Mac and Adele.

“That was my first time performing for that long. So that was a trip, but it was super cool. I’m hoping to do that again this year.”

She also has sung at Modesto’s PorchFest event.

To watch/hear Sarah’s song on TikTok visit:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8mWUSNj/