A 92-year-old who croons contemporary pop hits, garnering more than 600,000 followers on TikTok, says he feels “very, very fortunate”.
Edwin Rayner, from Bournemouth, Dorset, stopped singing after his wife Margaret passed away, but his granddaughters convinced him to upload some clips onto TikTok, creating a sensation.
His latest successes include 8.7m views for his cover of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club, and 11.5m for his version of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
He told Breakfast: “It is absolutely extraordinary, there’s no doubt about it.
“I get thousands and thousands of comments and I try and read them all.
“It takes me ages and ages, but it’s so gratifying because some of the people who comment on me were in despair, and my singing, and songs, have brought back life to them, and it’s so pleasing to know I’ve done this.”
Responses to his rendition of Roan’s number one single, inspired by a gay bar in West Hollywood, describe it as “healing”, “calming”, “beautiful”, and like a “human Winnie the Pooh”.
“I’m at the hospital with my grandma and your voice always calms her down – thank you so much,” one wrote.
Another said: “Edwin, this is extraordinary. You shot an arrow straight through my heart.”
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“Unfortunately I lost my Margaret 10 years ago and I miss her terribly,” Mr Rayner, who will be 93 on 31 March, explained.
“She was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful woman, and it’s because of the way she looked after me that I’m 93 and I can do what I can do.
“I’d stopped singing… and I sang all my life, I used to be a soloist in religious music and this time of year I’d be singing Stainer’s Crucifixion – a wonderful work – and it was such a pleasure, such a wonderful thing to be able to stand up in the churches with the choir.”
‘Very lucky’
He said his resounding renaissance was the “fault” of his “wonderful grandchildren”.
“I’m very lucky at my age I suppose, but then I don’t think age comes into does it?
“If you’ve got an ability, it doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s not important.”
Speaking to Sally Nugent and Jon Kay on the live One programme, he also joked that he was disappointed not to have made it into the King’s own music playlist.
“Perhaps the King would like me to send him one of my CDs?” he suggested.
Mr Rayner is known on social media as Grandad Sings, and the grandfather-of-five also has almost 400,000 followers on Instagram.
Other popular clips feature him singing anthems from Sam Fender, Lana Del Rey, and Keane, and numbers from the Wicked musical.
While he has always been a singer, at 18, he was stationed to North Africa between 1950 and 1952 as an RAF medic. He then went on to run a successful business selling tropical fish in Tenerife.
His favourite song is The Wonder of You by Elvis Presley, which he sings in honour of Margaret.
