Country singer Thomas Rhett was left visibly stunned when Today host Hoda Kotb passed the mic to a hardcore fan after his live performance on the Plaza.
Thomas, 34, was in New York City on Friday morning to sing some tunes and promote his new album, About A Woman, as part of Today’s Citi Concert Series.
But he was left gobsmacked when an audience member surprised him with her very own singing skills.
Shortly after Thomas performed his track, Crash and Burn, Hoda – who recently celebrated her 60th birthday – announced: ‘Okay, we have a bunch of great people in our audience, but I’m going to look for somebody named… she’s a schoolteacher, she’s from Long Island….’
Hoda continued: ‘Her name is Sydney,’ as she approached the brunette woman and said: ‘Hi, Sydney. How are you? Are you excited?’
Country singer Thomas Rhett was visibly stunned on Friday morning when TV host Hoda Kotb passed the mic to a hardcore fan live on the Today Show
Thomas was shocked as a woman in the audience named Sydney sang one of his songs
The fan grinned from ear-to-ear before the Today host passed her the microphone.
‘You also love to sing Thomas Rhett songs, don’t you? Did you know the words to the first one, the new one?’ Hoda asked her, as Sydney replied: ‘Yeah.’
The TV host then invited her to sing, saying: ‘Do you want to just show what you got? Whatever you want to sing?’
As the woman started singing Thomas’ song Beautiful As You, the father-of-four looked visibly shocked at how good she was and was heard saying: ‘Oh, okay!’ as he bopped his head along to her voice.
‘Oh my God!’ he added as he quickly made his way over to Sydney and gave her a big hug as mother-of-two Hoda giggled at their interaction.
‘Thank you so much,’ Thomas told her, and then told the crowd: ‘One more time, everybody say, “That was amazing Sydney,” holy, holy!’
‘Did you know she could sing?’ he asked Hoda, to which she replied: ‘Well, we had a feeling! She’s got it,’ as Thomas agreed.
Earlier on in the show, Hoda and her cohosts, Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones, spoke to Thomas about his new album, which was released on Friday, and how he felt about record number seven.
The father-of-four was genuinely impressed as he listened to the school teacher singing
Thomas quickly made his way over and gave Sydney a big hug as Hoda giggled
The 34-year-old country star treated fans to a special performance on the Today Plaza
‘I feel calmer than the other ones, that’s for sure,’ he admitted.
‘I just wanted to make people smile with this record, I wanted to bring joy, I wanted to make you dance, especially my wife over there, she asked me to make this record to make her dance.’
The camera then panned to wife Lauren Akins, who was in the audience waving, as Thomas gushed: ‘She’s the best, what you see is what you get.’
‘She’s the most authentic human being that I know in my life, the most beautiful human being I have ever seen and yeah, we’re about to celebrate 12 years of marriage in October, which is amazing,’ Thomas added as the crowd cheered.
When Al, 70, asked Thomas what his four daughters think about the album, he replied: ‘This is their favorite one because there’s only one ballad on the record, and ballads make them fall asleep!
‘Tried to keep it uptempo for my children, and I think it worked!’ he added, as Hoda congratulated him and Lauren for having ‘four girls under 10.’
Speaking of his kids and fatherhood, Thomas said: ‘It’s amazing. You know, the older two, I’ve got a third grader, a first grader and two in preschool, so it’s a lot but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.’
His comments come after Lauren opened up last month about why she ‘resented’ Thomas early on in their marriage and how she felt like she was ‘drowning’ as their family grew.
In a video shared on YouTube by I Am Second titled, Lauren Akins – This Wasn’t The Plan, the 34-year-old lifted the lid on the trouble she and Thomas faced in their relationship while he toured the world.
She admitted that the couple had reached a breaking point at the height of her spouse’s career.
She added that she ultimately ‘hated’ him for chasing his dreams as she was left to care for their children at home.
