This blind teenager went viral for singing the national anthem. He hopes his voice brings joy to others.

Sawyer McCarthy communicates best through music. The 13-year-old from South Carolina is blind. But his other senses – like his voice – are strong.

In April, he sang the national anthem at a Columbia Fireflies game, reaching millions of viewers – not only in America, but around the world.

“I remember asking him one day, ‘How many people do you think saw your video?’ “, his mother, Brianna McCarthy, told CBS News, turning to her son. “You answered me and you said, ‘Four.’ I said, ‘Yeah, try like four million.’

With no singing lessons until recently, Sawyer McCarthy has made it this far with nothing but her natural talent. His mother shared videos of him singing on Facebook.

“We realized that the way Sawyer communicates best is through music,” he said. “He always, always had a knack for hearing noises that even we didn’t notice.”

He remembered what his vocal coach told him during one of his first lessons when the coach used a really cool word.

“I don’t hear a lot of people say that, but it says my voice is very flawless,” he told CBS News. “And I’ve never heard anyone say that to me.”

Sawyer was born blind, but his mother didn’t know until he was 3 months old.

“I took Sawyer for a walk outside,” Brianna said. “And I noticed we were in direct sunlight, but it wasn’t scorching.”

Doctors later diagnosed Sawyer with septo-optic dysplasia and optic nerve hypoplasia, a genetic condition that affects one in 10,000 children, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Brianna and her husband Patrick hope that their son, the oldest of their six children, will be able to live as independently as possible.

“He reads Braille. He uses a cane. But there are still some developmental delays,” he said. “The older we get, the less sure we are about what the future looks like.”

Even at such a young age, Sawyer has big ambitions. He hopes to make it on “America’s Got Talent” — despite being nervous about what Simon Cowell might say, his mother said.

But no matter what happens, one thing is certain: the song is in its past, present and future.

“How do you think it makes people feel when they hear you sing,” Brianna asked her son.

“Joyful,” he replied, to which she happily agreed.