Sing Your Dialect: Live Twitter karaoke party joined by KSI, Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale

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By Kirsty Grant & Alice Evans
BBC Newsbeat

Image source, @Jacobbmc1

Image caption,

Jacob says the popularity of his Sing Your Dialect live event on Monday was "crazy"

Rapper KSI and Premier League footballers like Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale have all taken part in an impromptu karaoke party hosted by an unemployed 18-year-old from Manchester.

Jacob McLaughlin only invited four friends to his Sing Your Dialect event, hosted on Twitter's new Spaces feature.

But the link went viral and more than 150,000 people tuned in across Monday evening, Twitter said.

Jacob told Newsbeat the reception to his event has been "just crazy".

What is Twitter Spaces?

Put simply, a Twitter Space is like a group phone call.

Anyone can join a Space as long as they have the invite link.

There's a host who controls who can speak, which at the moment is limited to 13 people at once.

Twitter has been trialling the feature with a few users for a while, but started rolling it out more widely earlier this year. In October the social media platform announced that everyone with the app on iOS or Android can now host a Space.

What is Sing Your Dialect?

"I see it as a celeb versus the people karaoke radio show," says Jacob, who lost his job as a kitchen fitter two weeks ago and lives with his mum.

He'd been along to a Twitter Space called Sing Your Dialect where the host let people take it in turns to sing a song of their choice. But Jacob decided to create his own version of the event because, he says, he didn't like the way the original host only allowed people to sing if they followed him on Twitter first.

Jacob's event started out with about 1,000 people in it and the first celebrity appearance was from TV presenter Rylan Clark-Neal, who performed a rap.

After that more and more people joined until about 48,000 people were there at the peak on Monday evening.

"Basically I united the nation," Jacob says, adding that rapper Lethal Bizzle's rendition of Wonderwall was one of the best performances of the night.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

YouTuber and rapper KSI was among the thousands of people at Jacob's event

Asked which other celebrities were in the virtual room, Jacob says: "Who wasn't in there?" adding that his favourite moment was realising "Shrewsbury Town were singing Abba while Barack Obama was listening."

Twitter officials haven't confirmed whether or not the former US president was part of the Space, but they did tell Newsbeat attendees included rapper and YouTube star KSI, Premier League footballers Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale, and singer Stacey Solomon.

What did I miss?

If you're getting FOMO because you weren't there last night, don't worry - people screen-recorded some of the best bits.

Jacob gave this solid rendition of Robbie Williams' Angels a 10 out of 10...

But he cut the chorus of YouTuber Danny Aarons's attempt at Sweet Caroline short because it wasn't quite what he was expecting...

Danny joked on his own account that he was "furious" about being "kicked" mid-performance, but later showed he wasn't really that bothered because he'd been a part of "the greatest night in Twitter history".

And it wasn't all football chants, either. Jacob said this take on Shape of my Heart, by Nigerian actress Erica Nlewedim, was a "belter" of a performance.

When's the next Sing your Dialect?

Jacob wants to run the events on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays, from 7pm, "when everyone's had their tea and they're all winding down".

But he's doing a "bonus" event on Tuesday where he says West Ham and England star Declan Rice has asked to perform.

Jacob says he's a bit worried about the responsibility of being a host with such a big audience.

"When you've got big names, it's all coming down to my credit," he tells Newsbeat.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

We know Barack Obama loves a singsong - but Twitter hasn't confirmed whether or not he was at Jacob's event on Monday

He said he had to cut short a few performances from football fans at Tuesday's event when their songs turned into "derogatory chants".

Twitter officials have asked to attend Tuesday's event to help out with any technical issues.

"They said they're expecting stupid numbers tonight."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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