Rylan Clark-Neal has now completed his Children In Need challenge, staying up for 24-hours and singing non-stop karaoke throughout that time.
Now firmly a member of the BBC family with his own Radio 2 show and joint host of Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, Rylan was tasked with his own Ka-Ry-Oke challenge, and had raised over £900,000 for disadvantaged children at the time of writing.
Of course, he didn’t do it on his own, and had a variety of special guests dropping in to sing with him over the 24-hour period, including his celeb mates and a few unlikely duet partners from the music world.
Here are our highlights from Rylan’s day-long Ka-Ry-Oke efforts…
He kicked things off with a bit of Santana
Perhaps an unexpected choice from such a devotee of cheesy pop, Rylan got his Ka-Ry-Oke challenge going with a bit of Smooth by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana.
He started singing at around 9.30 on Tuesday, with the challenge coming to an end at the same time the following morning…
There were some strange duets with his fellow BBC Radio stars
Over the course of the 24-period, Rylan performed You Don’t Bring Me Flowers with Dermot O’Leary, Stand By Your Man with Scott Mills and It Takes Two with Ken Bruce.
We have to say, though, our personal favourite of these was when Steve Wright dropped by, and the pair put their own spin on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights.
There was also this…
Having already thrown some shapes together during the Dance-A-Thon, Jeremy Vine was a natural choice to team up with Rylan on a duet of Elvis Presley’s Always On My Mind.
Jeremy did have to restart the whole thing, though, after missing his cue on his first attempt. Who knew he was such a vocal perfectionist?
Claudia Winkleman definitely wasn’t giving Tina Turner a run for her money
“I’ve never heard this song before,” Rylan confessed, mid-way through a bizarre spoken-word version of Nutbush City Limits with Claudia Winkleman, who seemingly didn’t have much of an idea what was going on either.
Rylan reuniting with his former X Factor mentor Nicole Scherzinger was <3
The pair gave it their all with an enthusiastic rendition of 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up?. Fortunately, Rylan was able to get through it without a repeat of that X Factor meltdown.
Beverley Knight blew Rylan away
To be honest, this would probably be our reaction if we had to compete with this vocals too.
Michelle Visage brought a bit of glamour to the proceedings
We’ve got to say that after almost 12 hours of singing pretty much non-stop, we can’t think of much that would spur us on more than a surprise visit from Strictly Come Dancing and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Michelle Visage.
She and Rylan performed – what else? – Madonna’s Vogue, which Michelle will be dancing to when Strictly heads to Blackpool this weekend.
But of all of Rylan’s surprise guests, none sparked quite the same reaction as…
… Social media sensation Charity Shop Sue. The man literally fell to his knees.
There was this is-he-going-to-make-it? moment
During Vanessa Feltz’s early morning Radio 2 show, Rylan took a quick breather and had a chat with the host. Suffice to say, he was… knackered.
Later in the proceedings, Vanessa paid him a second visit, and gifted us with the R&B duet we didn’t know we needed in our lives, but can’t believe we ever lived without…
The Spice Girls reunion nobody asked for
You know when the night out has been really fun, but things are starting to get a bit out of hand and what you really want is your bed? Yeah, so does Rylan…
Heather Small turned up and did… well, you can probably guess
No, it probably wasn’t the most surprising of song choices, but at 23 hours and 45 minutes of singing karaoke live on the radio, we imagine this was probably quite the moving moment for Rylan.
Things eventually came to an emotional end
Performing with Zoe Ball, Heather Small and, naturally, Pudsey Bear, Rylan delivered his final song just short of 24 hours after he first got going, ending, fittingly, on Tina Turner’s The Best.
The presenter was then seen falling to his knees as Zoe Ball counted down to the end of the challenge, and confetti cannons exploded around him.
Well done, Rylan. Now get some hot lemon and ginger and get yourself off to bed for a well-earned rest.
This year’s Children In Need telethon will air live on Friday 15 November on BBC One. You can find out more about Rylan’s Ka-Ry-oke Challenge and how to donate by visiting the official Children In Need site.
