The musician was tricked into thinking the activist wanted him to partake in a project called Stars Save the Earth
Troye Sivan has gifted his fans with an incredible story about how he was catfished by someone pretending to be Greta Thunberg.
In a video posted to Twitter, the singer revealed that a person masquerading as Thunberg’s father reached out to Sivan’s manager, Dani Russin, asking if Sivan wanted to be part of a project called Stars Save the Earth.
Sivan says ‘Thunberg’s father’ sent him and Russin the climate activist’s to-do list for the project, including plans to “go swimming with sharks with Leo DiCaprio”, and “save the animals in Africa with Prince Harry”. Smirking, Sivan reveals his initial reaction: “I was like, ‘oh my god, this girl is so inspiring… and now she wants to work with me, that’s crazy’.”
Russin then passed what she thought was Thunberg’s number onto Sivan, who proceeded to text her, writing: “Hey Greta! This is Troye Sivan. I just wanted to say, I’m so inspired by your work. I think you’re the coolest thing ever. If there’s any way I can be of any service, please let me know.”
story time: I got catfished pic.twitter.com/e4tf2wwSEA
— troye (@troyesivan) March 27, 2020
After hearing nothing back from the activist, Sivan got a call from Russin saying she had a “bad feeling”. The manager had discussed her call with Thunberg’s father with her Swedish boyfriend, who disputed her claim that he didn’t speak very good English. The pair looked up clips of Thunberg’s actual father on YouTube, and found that the voice on the phone didn’t match the one in interviews.
“I died laughing,” Sivan said. “To me this was the most hysterical thing. That is the best plan ever – whoever thought of that is absolutely genius – but also the fact that my ego was big enough to be like: ‘Greta Thunberg 100 per cent wants to chill, she’s a big fan. We’re going to save the planet together, this is going to be fucking sick’. It just completely mortified me and made me want to die.”
The musician believes that the prank was done by a group of Russian hackers, who also reportedly scammed Prince Harry and Bernie Sanders.
As well as using his time in isolation to share unbelievable stories about teenage activists, Sivan has said he will ‘leak’ new music from quarantine. “Freeland artists (graphic designers, animation artists) hmu,” the singer wrote on Instagram. “I want to work with you and take the money I would be spending on music videos and give it to you. This is a tough and scary time, and I feel so lucky to have music and art to get me through emotionally and financially, and I want to share that so bad.”