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Reading Festivalgoers shocked as Hollywood celeb joins band to sing rap song in 'what the f***' moment

Home> Entertainment> Celebrity

Updated 20:45 22 Aug 2025 GMT+1Published 20:29 22 Aug 2025 GMT+1

Reading Festivalgoers shocked as Hollywood celeb joins band to sing rap song in 'what the f***' moment

That's a combination I never expected to see

James Moorhouse

James Moorhouse

Featured Image Credit: x/Josh_Harris_15

Topics: Rebel Wilson, Twitter, Music, UK News, Festivals, Viral

James Moorhouse
James Moorhouse

James is a NCTJ Gold Standard journalist covering a wide range of topics and news stories for LADbible. After two years in football writing, James switched to covering news with Newsquest in Cumbria, before joining the LAD team in 2025. In his spare time, James is a long-suffering Rochdale fan and loves reading, running and music. Contact him via [email protected]

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@JimmyMoorhouse

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You see plenty of strange things at festivals but an A-list celebrity coming out to perform a rap song with an Indie band is not your usual combination.

Reading and Leeds festivals kicked off on this beautiful Bank Holiday weekend, with the four-day celebrations promising plenty of music, merriment and mud.

While one lad recently revealed the staggering cost of the festival nowadays, there were plenty in attendance on Friday night as The Kooks kicked things off, but you'd certainly be naive to think that they didn't have anything up their sleeves in search of that viral moment.

After the Indie Rock band started playing a more melancholic version of the 1995 Coolio hit Gangsta's Paradise, who should emerge but Hollywood celebrity Rebel Wilson.

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The Pitch Perfect star is no stranger to singing and she's certainly not shy, given that she's regularly discussed the actor that she lost her virginity to at the age of 35, but fans were certainly surprised to see her give rapping a go.

The Aussie actor wasn't just on stage because of her love for gangster rap, however, as it seems that she was filmed on the stage alongside the band for a new movie being released in the near future.

Rebel Wilson on stage at Reading Festival (Simone Joyner/Getty Images)
Rebel Wilson on stage at Reading Festival (Simone Joyner/Getty Images)

A quick look at the comedian's IMDB page suggests that it could well be a film called 'Girl Group', but there are no other details at this moment.

The Kooks' lead singer Luke Pritchard has confirmed ahead of the show that they would be bringing out a special guest, but surely nobody would have predicted the 45-year-old, and certainly not in that fashion.

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Speaking about how the moment came together, Pritchard said, “We’re huge fans of Rebel. She got in touch saying she wanted to come and watch us. Immediately I invited her to join us on stage.He added, “We asked her which song she wanted to sing, expecting her to pick one of ours. She said the only song she knows all the words to is Gangsta’s Paradise... so Gangsta’s Paradise it was!”

After a singalong moment for ‘Seaside’, frontman Luke Pritchard introduced the Australian star. Hinting that the appearance may be part of an upcoming movie, Pritchard said, “We’d like to film a scene of a movie with you… so we’d like to welcome to the stage the incredible, the unbelievable, the hugely successful, famous, beautiful popstar, Tazzie Young… otherwise known as Rebel Wilson!”


But the best thing about Rebel is that she moves in her own way and that was certainly the case as she finished her frankly iconic performance by spraying the crowd with champagne.

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Her performance earlier this afternoon has already attracted plenty of attention on X, with popular podcaster Jaackmate writing: "I promise you this isn’t a troll… and I have no idea why this just happened… but I’m watching The Kooks at Reading Festival and they’ve just brought out Rebel Wilson to sing Gangster’s [sic] Paradise….

"What the f*** has just happened?"

The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard (Mario Skraban/Getty Images)
The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard (Mario Skraban/Getty Images)

Another wrote: "The Kooks bringing out rebel wilson to sing gangsta’s paradise was not on my bingo card for today."

A third said: "Reading Festival. Watching The Kooks. Rebel Wilson comes on and they sing Gangsta’s Paradise. I don’t remember taking any drugs."

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So, in case you were gutted to miss this particular performance, it seems as if you'll be able to catch it again when Wilson's role in the upcoming film is confirmed. And if they cut it, then congrats to anyone who got to witness this crazy collaboration live.

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