SPANISH FORK, Utah — As the rest of the world watched Post Malone put on a spectacular performance on Grammys over the weekend, many in Utah were not captivated by his song choice, but by what was on his head.
In front of a global audience, Posty sported a hat and belt buckle representing the city of Spanish Fork and its Fiesta Days Rodeo.
"It just made us much more proud to be from the home of pride and progress," said Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall.
The mayor was the one who gave the items to the rapper and was watching Sunday night when he wore them during an Ozzy Osbourne tribute.
"When Post came out, my 9-year-old said he’s wearing the rodeo hat! And we were all really excited, and my phone started blowing up, and it was a great time in our house," said Mendenhall.
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Thousands of people then turned to social media to see if they were the only ones who saw the head nod to the Utah County town.
"[I] had no heads up, but he gave us the tip of the cap," added the mayor.
"Massive and unexpected. It feels lucky," said Jack Urquhart, the city's public information officer. "I wonder if so many people searched and were like, 'Is this a real place? What is it? Is the rodeo real?'"
Urquhart hopes Spanish Fork was trending after the nod on music’s biggest night.
"People wonder what are you wearing, who are you representing. And for him to wear our hat without us even knowing about it was just awesome!" said Urquhard.
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Utah Rep. Mike McKell represents Spanish Fork at the Utah State Capitol and said Posty helped the bull riders during the rodeo.
"He had the time of his life, and it showed at the Grammys," McKell said. "It was pretty cool."
But Mayor Mendenhall says the city doesn’t necessarily need help filling seats at the rodeo, which he shared has been selling out for 20 years. He added that Post Malone's appearance at the actual rodeo was almost as big a surprise as his Grammys wardrobe.
"We didn’t have a lot of notice for that either," Mendenall explained. "He said, 'I wanna pull rope for the cowboys,' so he did that for a while and hung out all night at our rodeo, signed thousands of autographs, took thousands of pictures with the fans that were here, and we’d love to have him back again."
