Leonardo Patrick, from Old Trafford, has been performing on the streets of Manchester city centre since he was just five-years-old. Online videos of the youngster playing his guitar to crowds have been viewed hundreds of millions of times across the globe.
Leonardo has been performing on the streets of Manchester city centre since he was just five-years-old.
Leonardo Patrick might only be ten-years-old, but his talent for the guitar has brought him worldwide fame. The youngster, who is no stranger to performing, has been a familiar face on the streets of Manchester city centre since he was just five-years-old.
With nearly two million followers across social media, the Old Trafford-born rising star features in videos gigging to shoppers on busy Market Street. With taste older than his years, he’s famed for performing hits by the likes of Elvis, The Verve, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys.
His popularity, with more than 220 million views on YouTube alone, has now stretched from their home of Greater Manchester to thousands of miles across the pond, with major TV execs even reaching out to offer appearances on the likes of America’s Got Talent.
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Put simply, all the youngster wants to do is ‘have fun’ performing to passers-by, and ‘couldn’t give two hoots’ about his booming social media success, with profiles managed by parents Charbella and Matthew Patrick.
“He’s been busking since he was five,” Charbella, 41, told the Manchester Evening News. “People assume that it’s forced. It couldn’t be any further from it.
Leonardo Patrick is a familiar face on Market Street(Image: Leonardo Patrick
/ YouTube)
“He literally begged us, ‘I want to go busking! I want to go’. At first we were like, ‘oh, no, you know, I don’t think that’s a good idea’. We took him once and he was hooked. He got the adrenaline buzz and he loved it.”
Leonardo, who is home-schooled, first fell in love with the guitar after watching recordings of Live Aid and playing renditions of Eric Clapton’s Layla. He learnt to play the instrument by watching tutorial videos online and playing for hours a day in his bedroom.
“The first guitar ever was about £30, a nylon acoustic” he said. Now, he jams with his dad, and teaches himself how to play hits almost completely by ear. His most-watched videos on TikTok include a rendition of Tom Odell’s Another Love outside the Arndale centre with 4.4m views, and Eric Clapton’s Layla, racking up nearly 7m.
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And on YouTube, a clip titled ‘Busking in Manchester’ and filmed outside Marks and Spencer, showing the youngster then-aged nine, racked up 119 million views in just a year.
Large crowds stop in their tracks in the city centre to watch the 10-year-old perform, sometimes even alongside his younger brother, Fibonacci, aged seven. He plays with his guitar, a looper pedal station and a drum machine.
Leonardo Patrick pictured with mum Charbella, Dad Matthew and brother Fibonacci(Image: Charbella Patrick )
“He’d sit in his room for like four hours and just play,” Charbella said. “But that was for the first year… And then after that he didn’t need to watch a YouTube tutorial. It’s like he can just listen to a song. By that stage he was playing by ear.”
And asked if the fame has affected him, the mum-of-two said: “He’s got zero interest in social media. He never goes on the phone. I mean he couldn’t care less.
“Matthew will say to him, ‘this video has had 14 million views’ and he’ll go, ‘amazing! Anyway, dad’. He couldn’t give two hoots about the views or comments.
“[But] he’s always been full of love on his social media. The followers are just so wonderful. When he can make somebody smile, he just loves it, and we get really nice emails from people.”
Charbella said one follower’s mum, who is 94, is also a big fan. “When I go and see her once a month, the night before, she’ll always text me and say, ‘Don’t forget to bring Leonardo,’ The whole hour we sit and watch [his videos].”
Leonardo Patrick might only be ten-years-old, but his talent for the guitar has brought him worldwide fame
Charbella said Leonardo has even turned down offers from Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent and other bands asking to fly him out to the States. “The goal is to have fun,” she explained. “He just won’t ever be anything else other than himself.”
However next month, Leonardo will perform with an orchestra at the Marylebone Music Festival, with a rendition of Bittersweet Symphony.
“I never get bored of watching this kid play”, one commented on TikTok, while another wrote: “Honestly, [he] could easily go down as one of the greatest musicians to have graced our ears. [The] kid has grafted and just has a natural ability. Unbelievable.”
Leonardo’s videos can be found on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.