Cape Cod Teen Meghan Trainor’s Little-Known High School Performance

Long before she was "All About That Bass," Meghan Trainor was a Cape Cod teen with talent and a dream.

The 30-year-old singer-songwriter has such a strong trail of hits and music industry accomplishments behind her that it's easy to forget she was once a Nauset Regional High School student.

Cue the time machine that is YouTube.

Sandwiched between her glitzy videos for songs such as "Made You Look" (170 million views), "Me Too" (766 million views) and "Dear Future Husband" (656 million views), you'll find Trainor singing one of her earliest songs.

There are no frills in "Take Care of Our Soldiers," just Trainor, a guitar and a classroom. She wrote the song while a sophomore at Nauset Regional in Eastham in 2010 and performed it for CapeCast, a now-defunct video feature produced by The Cape Cod Times.

With all of her success ahead of her, Baby Trainor earnestly strummed her guitar and sang for a modest audience compared to her current 15 million YouTube subscribers. In the 14 years the song has been up, it has only amassed 32,000 views. It's still a well-kept secret.

"I wrote this song because however you feel about the war, you should respect people who are sacrificing everything for us," she said in the clip, noting all proceeds from sales of the song at the time were going to the USO and Cape Cod Cares for Our Troops.

At the time, U.S. troops were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The budding songwriter's favorite line in the patriotic tune:

"Here's to all the soldiers. We hope and pray they are OK. Here's to all the mothers and fathers risking their lives each and every day."

Proud papa Gary Trainor, who went on to play piano on Trainor's album Only 17, also makes an appearance in the video.

Trainor grew up on Nantucket and moved to mainland Massachusetts with her family when she was in eighth grade. At Nauset, she grew her musical abilities, independently releasing three albums before she graduated.

She broke through with 2015 album Title, which featured her first hit "All About That Bass," along with fan favorites such as "Lips Are Movin'" and ballad "Like I'm Gonna Lose You."

Her new album, out June 7, 2024, is called Timeless. It's an apt title. Trainor isn't a Cape Cod high schooler anymore but what hasn't changed in all those years is her love for performing.

She puts it best in her new collaboration with idol T-Pain:

"It ain't nothin' new, just me and my (expletive), 'cause I been like, been like, been like this."