#trending: Singaporean artist wins S$13,280 in YouTuber MrBeast’s birthday giveaway
SINGAPORE — A Singaporean artist is among 10 people to receive US$10,000 (S$13,280) each from MrBeast, a YouTuber who is known for his philanthropy and lavish giveaways.
Sheryl Tan, a 32-year-old artist and designer, received a text from MrBeast himself at 3am on Thursday (May 11) telling her about her win, and she has since been flooded by congratulatory messages from friends, family and strangers around the world.
"It's a rather surreal experience because I did not have much confidence about winning in the first place," Ms Tan told TODAY.
Just hours before she learnt she was one of the lucky winners, she had posted on her Instagram account an illustration recreating MrBeast’s original giveaway post in her own artistic style.
"I would say that this experience was manifested into existence and an instance of 'lucky girl syndrome'," she said.
Ms Tan was among 21 million people who participated in MrBeast's giveaway, which he launched to celebrate his 25th birthday on May 7.
The task was simple: Participants were simply required to share his post to their personal Instagram stories, tag another person in his comments section, and follow him on Instagram for him to alert them should they win the money.
Initially he said five lucky winners would get US$10,000 each but he later expanded the list to 10 people.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is an American YouTube sensation known for his larger-than-life giveaways, challenges and stunts.
He started content creation when he was 11 and has since amassed 151 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
He is also known for his charitable efforts, such as giving away thousands of dollars to random strangers on the street and funding sight restoration surgery for 1,000 blind people.
Ms Tan, too, has achieved a small bit of fame since her win: Her follower count on Instagram has also doubled since MrBeast announced her as one of the winners on his Instagram account, and continues to rise exponentially.
One of her followers commented, “ur a national treasure now!”, to which she replied: “ASEAN REPRESENT.”
Local media company SGAG SG published a congratulatory post on its Instagram account, captioned “what are the odds congrats @meyyen_”.
Ms Tan plans to use her windfall to fund her art, hoping to take her work to a larger audience by participating in both local and international exhibitions and conventions.
“Art is not necessarily the cheapest hobby,” she quipped.
