As heard with Pat Courtenay, a video being shared online has left viewers feeling all warm & fuzzy after seeing a man sitting alone in a park in London singing Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ before everyone in the park joins in.
Passer-by Matej Priteržnik posted the video on YouTube, which has since had over a million and a half views.
At just 46 seconds long, Priteržnik says in a YouTube comment that he captured the video clip just to have a memory of it. He shared it online to demonstrate a larger message: “That one guy can change everything!”
As mirror.co.uk describes it, “The man begins to belt out Jon Bon Jovi’s classic Livin’ On A Prayer, as his brilliant voice carries over the humdrum noise of hundreds of strangers sitting on the grass surrounding him in a park close to Embankment station on the Thames. His impromptu concert seems to go largely unnoticed until he reaches the chorus – at which point his lone voice is joined by hundreds of others as the park suddenly becomes alive with the sound of ‘Ohh, we’re halfway there’ as drinks are raised towards the sky. The man then raises his own can to the backing vocalists in the most heartwarming nod of appreciation between hundreds of strangers you are ever likely to see. The camera pans round to show the sheer volume of people who became caught in the moment themselves, proving the singer’s brave impulse to be worth the risk and a thousand times more”.
‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ was released back in 1986, and has become one of the most popular rock songs of all time, selling over 800,000 physical copies in the US alone, and was downloaded over 3 million times by 2013. The original video has over 640 million views on YouTube.
This isn’t the first time that the man featured in the clip has seemed to randomly break into song. Last fall, a video was uploaded featuring a singer—who sounds a lot like the guy in the park—serenading a subway car with the same Bon Jovi bop.
