A British busker filmed singing a Justin Bieber song on a street in Eastbourne said it was “like a VR experience” when he then duetted with the star on stage in front of 50,000 people.
Sam Tompkins says he didn’t believe it at first when he was told his hero was following him on Instagram. But he messaged the Despacito hitmaker just to check. Sam then heard back from Justin a few minutes later, and the two hit it off immediately.
The busker recalled: “He said ‘You’ve got a gift’ but I was really cool about it”. Sam thinks his video singing ‘Love Yourself’ on a street in Eastbourne grabbed Justin’s attention. But a couple of weeks later, all hell broke loose when Justin was doing an online live stream.
READ MORE: Bloke shows off Tesla’s autopilot as boozy passengers leave driver seat empty at 65mph
For more stories about music, movies and more, check out the Daily Star’s Showbiz section.
(Image: Instagram/samtompkinsuk)
“I was sitting on the sofa in the dark looking like an absolute hobbit,” Sam told the Happy Hour podcast, “and I requested to be a part of it as a joke”. But Justin didn’t take it as a joke: “10 minutes later the screen splits and says ‘you’re going live with Justin Bieber in five’. I said ‘Oh f***,oh s***’.”
Minutes after he appeared on the live stream to Justin’s 293million followers, Sam’s phone started blowing up. Even his mum got in touch to comment on his sudden fame. “We were just chatting about life,” Sam says, “and I think in that moment our conversation was so fluid and considering how nervous I was it was actually really nice. I thought I felt at that point it was one of those weird moments as silly as it sounds. You realise he’s just a dude like me and we just get on. We have similar interests and outlooks on life.”
(Image: Youtube/Happy Hour Podcast)
But the Bieber connection got even deeper when Sam and his manager flew to Los Angeles on business. Justin called Sam out of the blue. Sam said: “Bear in mind I haven’t spoken to him on FaceTime or anything for three months. He looks a billion dollars. He’s been up for three hours been to the gym.”
Meanwhile Sam was feeling distinctly the worse for wear after a night out. He says: “He’s got a really great sense of humour. Justin said ‘I guess you don’t want to go for breakfast then?’ And I ran out of my room – it was like Christmas.” That friendly breakfast wasn’t the last time Sam and Justin met up. The Brighton-based singer scored a support act slot on one of his hero’s tours and was invited to watch the show from the side of the stage.
(Image: Instagram/samtompkinsuk)
“I was watching him and I looked at the set list and it had ‘Peaches’ with an arrow that said ‘Sam’ by it.” Sam could hardly believe his eyes, saying: “I was in a full tracksuit – I looked s***. “I just went to my manager ‘Mate, do you mind just holding my tracksuit I’m just going to get changed just in case. Literally as soon as I got my stuff on, I heard him go ‘Welcome my friend Sam to the stage…’
(Image: Matt Keeble/REX/Shutterstock)
Sam says: “It felt a VR experience. Imagine 50,000 people and you’re just standing there, going back and forth with your favourite artist of all time, on one of your favourite songs. It was pretty intense.”
To get more stories from Daily Star delivered straight to your inbox sign up to one of our free newsletters here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
