Samuel a young man from Gabon who sings Celine Dion's style of singing "The Power of Love" has gone viral worldwide.
He said he was "overwhelmed" after the Canadian pop star Celine Dion shared a video of him on her millions of social media followers.
“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… May all your dreams come true. Keep singing like you do. When music comes from the heart, it knows no borders!” Dion wrote on Facebook.
The video was filmed by his brother in the staircase of a building in Libreville where they lived. The homemade video shows the 17 years old teenager Gabonese sitting wearing nothing on the feet hitting high notes of Celine's hit song in 1993.
The video was first shared by a prominent blogger Barack Nyare Mba on his Facebook page before it was reposted by the singer on her Facebook where it attracts viewers to more than 2.7 million pageviews.
The Gabonese blogger also started a campaign to raise funds for the teenager that will help his singing career. He has created a Facebook page for Samuel calling it ‘Tous Ensemble Pour Samuel’(All Together For Samuel)that has over 2,000 likes already.
Samuel has never taken singing lessons and said that he started singing by himself in break times at school but had to leave school because of a lack of money.
"I wasn't expecting that. I haven't got a phone or a Face book account -- it was my brother who told me Celine had shared my video. I just hope that one day I can meet her for real." Samuel told AFP.
With this fame, the staircase singer has been approached by TV singing contests producers in France and Ivory Coast.But feels unaccustomed to the music industry.
"I'm not used to this. I feel good when I sing in the staircase, and now people recognise me in the street," he said.
Watch the video.
Video source: Barack Nyare Mba
