British Teen Tom Bleasby Chased By Record Companies After Viral Jessie J Virtual Duet

By christon jervil| Jun 02, 2015

Tom Bleasby may just be an ordinary teenager from Leeds -- until he was heard singing with the English singer and pop star Jessie J on a virtual duet.

The 18-year-old British teen recorded a cover of the song "Flashlight" using a karaoke app online, and, apparently, the rendition was just pitch perfect.

The cover received so much attention, just like the 2015 musical sequel, where the song was used as a soundtrack, BBC said.

Tom is now recognized as an "overnight internet sensation," with the duet nearing 9 million views since its Facebook posting on May 23. And the whole experience is a stranger to the young man.

"It all feels very surreal," BBC quoted his remarks. "The past week has been crazy. My phone does not stop going off. The overwhelming outpour of support has been inspiring, thousands of messages from complete strangers telling me how amazed they were."

Soon after the video went viral, he is now bombarded with requests from different record companies--- not the least of which is a record producer who has worked with Beyonce in the past.

Tom, who admitted that he had never taken any vocal lessons before, could go from being a choirboy to a recording artist on his own, commanding a good "price tag" with no less than Jessie J vouching for his talent.

According to another report from BuzzFeed, the 27-year-old "Bang Bang" and "Domino" singer even shared the video on her own Facebook account with the caption, "Have you seen this? It's amazing!!"

And the young Brit, understandably, can't help himself from gushing about it. The experience has been "beyond anything I could ever imagine. We all truly underestimate the power of social media. My life's direction has changed," Tom told BuzzFeed. 

He said that he has been into the Smule Sing app for several months already. When he learned that one of his musical inspirations, Jessie J, promoted her single through the app, he spared no time in grabbing the chance to sing along with her.

With the help of the Smule app, two recordings, one from the artist and another from the user (who fills in gaps intentionally left by the artist), are meshed together to give an impression that the pair are really singing a duet, the Mirror also reports.

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