What’s So Great About Brandon From Listen To Your Heart?

It seems like the most popular musician (on screen, at least) on The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart is Brandon Mills. After just two episodes, he's had three different women swoon over him: Savannah McKinley, whom he went on a date with, as well as Mel Taevin and Julia Rae. But what's the big deal with Brandon, anyway? A deep dive on his Instagram reveals what may be his secret weapon to getting women to fall for him: He's basically a character out of a Nicholas Sparks novel (on paper, anyway).

Brandon is a former marine who is now making a go of an American Folk Pop career. At 34, he's the oldest contestant in the house — so perhaps the women assume he's the most mature and ready to settle down. I don't know about that, since he admitted on the show that it's challenging for him to form something deep in such a short amount of time (Listen To Your Heart was filmed over just a handful of weeks). But on his Instagram, Brandon strikes a note that we're not seeing much of on the show.

He's crafted all of his posts to suggest that he's a real deep thinker. Nearly all of his Instagram captions start with a thought-provoking quote from people like author Lois Lowry, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, musician Tom Petty, and Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. More than a few times, Brandon's quote of choice is a caption for what would otherwise be considered a low-key thirst trap. But with a little pensive passage attached, technically.... nope, it's still a thirst trap.

Most of Brandon's photos are of him carrying a guitar or playing a guitar or standing near a guitar, because, in case you didn't know, he's a musician. He has posted a couple of videos of him singing, and his tunes are pretty much all love songs (cue swooning LTYH contestants).

These are the lyrics to one of his songs, and not quotes from a proposal speech on The Bachelorette: "I will give you the shirt off my back in the pouring rain, just to watch you laugh. I would give you anything that you ask, and never ask for it back … just be kind to my heart."

And another one: "You can steal all my money, but you’ll never steal any of my love. I’ve been dreaming of you before I was born and I’ll be loving you long after I'm gone."

Further proving his worthiness as a Nicholas Sparks-style romantic lead, here he is rowing a boat like Noah did for Allie in The Notebook. While shirtless. And in Europe, so you know he's worldly.

Of course, Savannah, Mel, and Julia didn't have access to Brandon's Instagram when they began making googly eyes at him on the show. But maybe he walks around quoting literary giants and world leaders and thinkers in real life, and the producers decided that wouldn't make for great TV. You know, because people just love to hear FDR quotes used in casual conversation.

And sure, he recently wrote in a caption on a photo of him and Savannah that says "I couldn't have asked for a better first date with a better human being," so it's possible he knows how to say sweet things too. You know, when he's not hedging his bets by leading other contestants (ahem, Mel and Julia) on.