The Greatest Showman -
Chapter 147
September 6th, an utterly ordinary Monday, and all of North America was calm and peaceful.
Just this past Saturday, the Emmy Awards had wrapped up, and the new television season was about to begin. But the media didn’t even have time to take stock before rushing off to Italy because this year’s Venice Film Festival kicked off on September 1st and would run through the 11th. It was the final event of Europe’s three major film festivals for the year, and also served as a prelude to North America’s awards season — naturally, no media outlet wanted to miss it.
And that wasn’t all. This Thursday, September 9th, the Toronto International Film Festival is also about to begin. Films aiming to make a splash during awards season are stepping into the spotlight — whether at Venice or Toronto — with some production teams even participating in both. The busy holiday season was only just getting started.
So, this Monday, the U.S. domestic scene had become relatively quiet by contrast.
At this moment, William Taylor was feeling a bit down. A few days earlier, the Toronto Film Festival had announced this year’s lineup of competition entries, and Buried was on the list. That made William itch with excitement — he wanted to go to Toronto and watch Renly’s film as soon as possible.
But he had just started college and was still adjusting. He didn’t even know where his classrooms were yet. If he started skipping class now, he’d be in trouble later — or should he seize the moment while the professors didn’t yet recognise him and sneak off to Toronto for a quick trip? Otherwise, there might not be another chance.
Frustrated, William scratched his head. It was a real headache. He let out a long sigh.
“Why isn’t there a perfect solution?” he muttered, head hanging low as he opened his phone. Out of habit, he instinctively tapped into his music app, scrolled through the day’s smartly recommended new songs, and then spotted a very eye-catching name:
Renly Hall.
William jumped in surprise, practically leaping to his feet, and smacked his head hard against the bedpost. Grimacing in pain, he rubbed his head, but didn’t have time to groan. He quickly looked at his phone screen. The very first recommended track read:
“Ophelia — Renly Hall”, and the fourth one was:
“Cleopatra (Arranged Version) — Renly Hall.”
It had already been a full week since the Emmys, but discussion around Ophelia on YouTube hadn’t cooled down at all — in fact, it had only grown more intense. The song’s daily average views were holding steady at around 700,000, even outperforming Cleopatra during ThePacific broadcast. Like a small rocket, it was shooting up in popularity, staying in YouTube’s daily top 20 videos for seven consecutive days. The reception had far exceeded expectations.
As a folk song, the buzz surrounding Ophelia had gone far beyond what anyone had anticipated.
At first, people had only paid attention to the single because of the buzz — whether it was the street performance after the Emmy Awards or an actor crossing over into singing, both were interesting topics. And with The Pacific unexpectedly scoring the Best Actor award, gossip was flaring even more intensely — just who was this newcomer that seemed to come out of nowhere?
Some even speculated that Renly might be the relative or secret child of some powerful figure. Otherwise, how could a newcomer draw so much attention, landing the lead role in The Pacific, winning an Emmy, and then topping headlines with a street performance and a folk song?
Isn’t all of this just too much of a coincidence?
People began digging into Renly’s family background, but unfortunately, they turned up with very little information. No Facebook and Twitter accounts, not even a YouTube account of his own. His Wikipedia and IMDb pages had pitifully little information — it seemed that aside from The Pacific and Cleopatra, there was no trace of him anywhere. In this age of information overload, the fact that no one even knew where Renly was from? That’s just not normal!
Soon after, Buried surfaced. This small Spanish indie film, with a budget of less than $3 million, suddenly became the focus of attention. Yet the entire production crew was completely unknown. Even an outsider could tell the film had no real commercial prospects. Which made things even more confusing — if Renly really came from a powerful background, why would he act in such a low-budget, no-name project?
Amid all this controversy, a new voice emerged online, claiming that all the rumours about Renly were false. He was just an ordinary actor with no influential background whatsoever.
First, the lack of actor profiles — wasn’t that simply because no one paid attention to him? Even after The Pacific aired, HBO didn’t update any official information on Renly, clearly showing he wasn’t a priority for them.
Second, before the Emmys, there was barely any information available about him. That hardly matched the pattern of a behind-the-scenes PR campaign fueled by family connections. His surprise win looked more like a rare moment of genuine recognition from the Emmy judges.
Third, before starring in Buried, Renly had a gap of six months — and if you counted from the wrap of The Pacific, that gap extended beyond nine months. That doesn’t sound like the schedule of someone with strong backing. It looked more like an actor without support or representation.
Fourth, the casual, spontaneous street performance was the clearest sign of authenticity. People from wealthy, connected families don’t go busking on the street.
This argument gained a lot of traction online and seemed to be winning the upper hand in the ongoing debate.
Originally, most people were watching the Ophelia video out of gossip and curiosity, but soon, genuine folk music lovers began to emerge. They remembered the earlier recommendation from The Fader — a strong endorsement of Renly’s talent. First came Cleopatra, then Ophelia — two folk songs that shared a consistent style and outstanding quality, easily winning the hearts of many music fans.
Meanwhile, Billboard Magazine published a feature in its latest issue listing the most noteworthy new folk singles of the past year — and Cleopatra was one of them. Journalist Jordin Nicole wrote:
“This is a song that catches you by surprise. Its flowing melody bursts with power through poetic lyrics. The subtle sadness and regret seep into your soul like a cold spring. A voice from a newcomer well worth listening to.”
The article recommended twelve folk songs in total, with Cleopatra being just one of them. Even so, it was enough to put the spotlight back on Ophelia. First, The Fader, now Billboard — that was more than enough!
Word of mouth started spreading. Even listeners who had no interest in folk music ended up hearing the song by chance and gave it a thumbs up. Unfortunately, there was one big letdown — they couldn’t download the song!
It was such a buzzkill!
People all share a certain psychological trait: scarcity creates value. Even the most ordinary item, once labelled as limited edition or discontinued, instantly becomes more valuable — and the harder it is to get, the more people crave it. This is the foundation of the marketing world’s infamous tactic: “hunger marketing.”
And now, without even trying, Ophelia had become exactly that — something everyone longed for.
Why can’t it be downloaded?
Why is there only one video upload of it?
Why isn’t there a full version of the song?
Why no promotion?
Why is there even an unarranged version of Cleopatra available, but nothing else from Ophelia?
What’s the deal here?
What is Renly up to? What’s he hiding?
Fueled by curiosity, Ophelia not only maintained strong viewership and buzz on YouTube, but cover videos began to emerge in increasing numbers. Some singers even rearranged the song themselves, putting their own spin on Ophelia.
Among passionate fans online, interest exploded — to the point where someone actually extracted the audio track from the YouTube video, restored and cleaned it up, and shared it online as an unofficial audio file.
This was extremely rare in a country like the United States, where copyright protection is especially strict. Within twelve hours of the audio being shared, it was taken down — because in the U.S., uploading or distributing such files is illegal.
(Of course, hacker websites were another matter.)
But even so, the heat surrounding Ophelia remained sky-high — and that was just one small reflection of its growing momentum.
Everyone was talking:
When will Renly release the single?
What game is he playing by holding off?
More and more people speculated that this was all part of a long-planned promotional strategy: from the post-Emmy street performance, which would have made headlines whether he won or not, to the surprise upload of Ophelia, it all seemed like a meticulously crafted campaign.
The next step? Likely another surprise track, or a tie-in with a radio promotion, gradually building public curiosity to a fever pitch before officially debuting as a singer.
And then — just like that — the Ophelia single was uploaded.
No warning. No hype. No press. No announcement.
It arrived quietly, almost anonymously — so understated it could barely be noticed.
And in that one moment, every conspiracy theory collapsed.
The quiet release erased all suspense.
It killed all expectations.
Everything that had been built up until now — just came to an abrupt end.
It left people thrilled, and yet… also a little disappointed.
If the buzz had been allowed to simmer for another two to three weeks, maximising the effects of hunger marketing, the eventual release of the single would have undoubtedly had a much greater impact. But now, it had only been a week, and the single was hastily released — you could almost say it fell just short of success.
However, for true music lovers, this was the best possible news.
They could finally enjoy the music they loved — with no gossip, no controversy, just pure music.
People like William.
William immediately hit download — not just for Ophelia, but also for Cleopatra (Arranged Version).
Each single costs just 99 cents.
When he hit play, the beautiful audio quality brought a big smile to his face.
Maybe… not being able to go to Toronto wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
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