An aspiring young Gabonese singer said Wednesday he was “overwhelmed” after Canadian superstar Celine Dion shared a homemade video of him performing one of his hits with her millions of social media followers.
Samuel, aged just 17, was filmed performing a haunting rendition of Dion’s “The Power of Love” while sitting barefoot on a staircase of his building in the central African country’s capital Libreville.
The video was picked up by a prominent Gabonese logger and viewed more than a million times in a week before Dion reposted it on her Facebook page on Tuesday evening, doubling the number of views overnight to nearly 2.3 million.
“Samuel, your talent is as big as your voice. I’m touched my songs have traveled all the way to you and hope we have the chance to meet one day,” Dion wrote on Facebook.
“May all your dreams come true. Keep singing like you do. When music comes from the heart, it knows no borders!“
Samuel, from a poor family in Libreville, has never taken singing lessons and said he has had to leave school because of a lack of money.
He told AFP he was “overwhelmed and very surprised” by the message from his idol.
“I wasn’t expecting that. I haven’t got a phone or a Facebook account — it was my brother who told me Celine had shared my video,” he said. “I just hope that one day I can meet her for real.” He said he has been approached by producers from TV singing contests in France and Ivory Coast.

Source: Arab News