Deanna Dixon, renowned as the Rideshare Queen, has woven an extraordinary narrative as an esteemed background vocalist for icons like Beyoncé and Kanye West. However, her biggest stage is now her car. After leaving Los Angeles to prioritize her daughter’s needs, Dixon transformed her Uber driving experience into viral content that has captured millions of viewers and spawned a thriving Atlanta music community called The CommUNITY.

Can you walk us through the moments you realized your rideshare videos were going viral?

I had just installed my webcam into my car. I was picking up a passenger, he had no idea my connection to music, and he was just talking to me just like a regular uber driver. He ended up telling me he was a rapper, and I was like, let me hear something.

We ended up doing a collaboration in my car and that was the moment that I knew I had a special opportunity to connect with perfect strangers that were talented, and because I live in Atlanta, which is a music hub, I was just like, Wow, if I just met one or 2 strangers like this a week, this is a show.

I started connecting with strangers that had powerful stories and testimonies. There was a mother I had met that had just recently lost custody of her children, and I followed along with her story, and was able to showcase and share that with the world, and even the reconnection with her kids was shared with the world. I was like, wow! This is such an incredible space to be in, where I was able to turn my car into my own show and into my own stage, and that was the moment that I knew I had something special.

You’ve performed on some of the biggest stages in music with Beyoncé and Kanye. So how does this compare when you’re looking back at it?

I’m a single mom. What I didn’t have when I was sharing the stage and singing behind these big superstars was control of my time and the ability to be available to my daughter the way that I desired to be. Once I saw I could create my own show, my own stage, build my own table, and still make it home at 3 o’clock to get my daughter off of the bus. I realized this was such a powerful thing. I didn’t have to wait on anyone to provide an opportunity. I was the opportunity.

How did the idea for CommUNITY ATL come about? And what makes it different from a traditional choir or music group?

What started as me helping out a business. It was this membership based studio in Atlanta, called Atlanta Sound Factory. They reached out to me because they knew I had built communities for singers. [They] had tons of producers and songwriters, but they didn’t really have a database of singers.

I did one event on November 11th, that event went so well. We ended up saying, oh, we should do another one. This absolutely did not start as a regular staple event. It just was me trying to support a business.

And I continued hosting from November 11th up until now. Every Monday I was hosting and posting videos of what was happening in this room. It just naturally turned into people calling us a choir. I’m like, we’re not a choir, this is a room full of strangers. Every week it was a different group, but we were doing covers of all types of songs from Human Nature Michael Jackson to Tevin Campbell Can We Talk, to Stevie Wonder.

It was not a choir, but we started getting inquiries about booking us as a choir. It didn’t really actually become an official choir until maybe 3 months ago.

Before then it was just a group of strangers that were coming weekly and just learning arrangements on the spot. They would learn in maybe 45 min to an hour, and we would go viral. We’ve had bookings for weddings, and we’ve performed at the MLK Beloved Awards. It’s just kind of taken on a life of its own, and I feel like I’m sitting in the passenger seat, being obedient to where this is going.

What role has your daughter played in helping, shaping your career and your decision to move from LA to Atlanta?

She’s been such a major part in my decision making. I decided to leave LA at what some would say was the pinnacle of my career as a background vocalist. Because, after you work with Beyoncé, where do you go from there? And then traveling with Kanye West for several years and working during the pandemic with him and Sunday Service like, where do you go from there?

I hit a roadblock. My daughter was in kindergarten at the time, and was one of the roughest school years ever. So I’m having all of this ascension happening in my professional life, but my personal life was on the struggle bus. I had to make a hard decision. She needs more stability. She needs more of me, and that’s what led to me deciding to move back to Atlanta, where she was born. I was like, well, I could just do uber in the meantime, until I figure it out, never realizing that that was going to segue into me creating the Rideshare Queen.

I share my testimony all the time that I didn’t know that I was going to be the Rideshare Queen, and I didn’t know that I was going to found this national movement that is taking the Internet by storm. I really just had a desire to be present in my daughter’s life. She’s been a big part in what’s happening, because if it wasn’t for me being a single mom. I will still be out there traveling. I will be on tour.

What kind of people do you work with and what do you do to help them unlock themselves?

What was birthed out of The CommUNITY was, I was connecting with a lot of creatives that had lost their light and their connection to their dreams, and they thought they had reached an impasse, and they didn’t know how they could take care of themselves and live the life they wanted to live while also chasing a dream. And because I had found a solution, I was like, how can I help empower these creatives and help them to reconnect with their gifts, and then use social media as an outlet?

A lot of my coaching is around reconnecting with your dreams, thinking outside of the box, building your own table and opening your own door. I’ve watched people go from saying, I haven’t sang in 5 years to now they’re traveling and working again as a professional singer. Some opportunity doesn’t mean you even have to leave your house. It’s just opening up your cell phone and posting some videos and showcasing your talent on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube. I pretty much coached them how to use social media to open up doors for themselves.

One behind the scenes moments from your ride share videos that still makes you laugh. It still gives you chills?

One of my most powerful moments landed me an opportunity to go on the Jennifer Hudson show. One of my biggest inspirations was Tabitha Brown, and I found out that she went through a phase where she was an aspiring actress, and she had to drive for Uber. Just for me, posting my videos online. It landed me on the Jennifer Hudson Show, and they surprised me with meeting Tabitha Brown. And let me tell you, I was in shambles. I was crying. I was like, you’re my biggest inspiration. So to see just how powerful social media can be. Me posting my videos as an Uber driver allowed me to connect with one of my biggest sheroes, which was Tabitha Brown. That moment was life changing for me.

Also Rihanna would follow me, and she was commenting on my video. Don’t look down on small beginnings, and you just never know where your content will take you.

What’s next for you? Do you have new music? Are there any programs?

What’s next for me and this choir is, I plan to take these people around the world. We’ll be working on an album. Somebody asked me, where do you want to perform? I said, I want to perform at the Super Bowl, I want us to perform at the Grammys, and I want us to perform in some major award shows. That’s what I see coming up next for us is just continuing to make these creative dreams come true.

What advice would you give creatives that are going through transitions that are struggling right now to post content and all that?

My advice is, don’t puff up, don’t shrink. Stay in your own sacred ground. It’s just really about being your authentic self. A lot of times we try to become what we think people want of us, but when you become your authentic self, your true audience can find you, support you and love you for who you are.

Where can we find you? Where can we find Community ATL?

First of all, you can go to my website, which is www.deannadixon.com. As far as The CommUNITY, you can find us at www.wearethecommunity. Our handle on Instagram is @wearethe_community, on TikTok @wearethe_community. Because that is what we are, The CommUNITY.