If you're a longtime viewer of The Bachelor franchise (it's okay, I am too), you'll know that its reality TV dating shows are somewhat strangely entrenched in the country music world. (Surely that doesn't mean anything politically, right? Right?) Season after season, there will inevitably be a date between a bachelor or bachelorette and a contestant where some somewhat lesser-known country singer-songwriter performs a ballad and the couple slow dance and gaze deeply into each other's eyes.
Now getting into its 28th (!) season, The Bachelor brought on a recently-gone-country Canadian: Bahamas. I'll avoid giving spoilers, but the first one-on-one date of bachelor Joey Graziadei's journey to find a fiancée love takes place at BeachLife Ranch music festival in Southern California (which he and his date travel to by helicopter, obviously).
Before the contestant, Daisy, movingly — I'm actually being earnest here, this is important representation — tells Graziadei about her struggles with Lyme disease and her adoption of a cochlear implant after years of losing her hearing, the pair enjoy a performance from Bahamas from backstage with their all-access festival passes before bandleader Afie Jurvanen brings them onstage to dance to "Half Your Love" from 2020's Sad Hunk.
For many people, this would be uncomfortable, but they make a pretty cute moment out of it. This often can't be said of the chosen bachelors, but tennis coach Graziadei genuinely seems like a sweetiepie. Will this green-eyed hunk choose Daisy, a noted Bahamas fan? ("I love him!" she exclaims when Graziadei tells her who they're going to see perform.) Only time will tell!
Likewise, notably, Bahamas is not the only performer on this week's episode; he actually has a tough act to follow, as the first group date of the season sees Graziadei and nine "brides" hosting a wedding reception, where contestant Rachel is selected as the winner of having an intimate first dance with the bachelor while none other than Michael Bolton performs his iconic rendition of Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves of Woman."
Jurvanen and Bolton — now that's a pairing everyone can get behind, no matter which contestant is pulling ahead in your Bachelor brackets.
