Rebel Wilson surprises The Kooks fans with jaw-dropping Reading Festival performance

Hollywood icon Rebel Wilson joined indie band The Kooks onstage at Reading and Leeds Festival on Friday (August 22) as their special guest, in a crossover nobody was expecting.

Luke Pritchard, Hugh Harris and Alexis Nuñez performed a rendition of Coolio’s 1995 hit song, Gangsta’s Paradise, with the actress, sending fans in the audience wild.

After performing their song Seaside, frontman Luke introduced Rebel, 45, to the stage as he 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!”

Rebel sang the rap portions of the iconic track while Luke crooned to the chorus. Speaking about the unexpected collaboration, Luke, 40, said the group are “huge fans of Rebel” and revealed she wanted to “come and watch us”.

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He continued: “We asked her which song she wanted to sing, expecting her to pick one of our's. She said the only song she knows all the words to is Gangsta’s Paradise… so Gangsta’s Paradise it was!”

The song ended with the comedienne spraying a bottle of champagne all over the crowd before exiting stage left so the boys could continue the rest of their set.

The Kooks took to Instagram to share the fun moment as they penned: “Joined by the incomparable @rebelwilson to perform one of our favourites. Truly unforgettable, thank you @officialrandi.”

Fans flocked to the comments section as one expressed: “This crossover is incredible,” while another penned: “This was so cool!”

A third follower gushed: “This feels like a fever dream in the best way possible,” and a fourth added: “Are you kidding!!!!!”

The Kooks’ fans who were at the festival also shared their thoughts as one said on X: “Yesterday was a fever dream, not only did I see Chappell Roan but Gangsta’s Paradise sung by Rebel Wilson with The Kooks.”

A second surprised social media user said: “Well Rebel Wilson and The Kooks at Reading and Leeds wasn’t on my bingo card…”

The appearance marks the band’s third time at the Reading and Leeds Festival and this year’s gig, which is on until today (August 23), will also see other headliners including Travis Scott, Hozier, AJ Tracey and Becky Hill.

Rebel is no stranger to singing a song or two, having performed on the big-screen in several films, including the Pitch Perfect films, Isn’t It Romantic, Cats and most recently, Pop Musical film Juliet & Romeo.

Not only this, but the Australian star has also sung as part of musical theatre performances in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Guys and Dolls on the West End.

She has a long history with music as she performed in a rap duo with her sister at a young age as they covered hit songs together.

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