The Love Island days may be over, but it seems our fascination with this year’s contestants is far from finished. Unlike reality shows of the past when after the final, the winners and losers slowly fade from memory and pop cultural relevance, these people we spent the best part of two months getting to know as they tried to find true love in the confines of a camera covered Spanish villa, are still at the forefront of both our minds and Instagram feeds.
And of course, the couple on everyone’s lips at the moment is Kem and Chris (sorry Amber). Their collective dream finally came true over the weekend when they got to hang out with Stormzy at V Festival. Their love for Big Mike is far from a secret after that, ahem, stunning, shall we say, Run KMC (stands for Kem, Marcel, and Chris) rap performance they put together on the show, which later prompted a surprise Skype call from Stormzy himself. There have since been various Twitter hints by both parties about working on some sort of collaboration together. But this IRL, face to face meeting between one of the most highly celebrated grime artists around and two lads who were on the telly for a little bit, means something very different.
It seems we've given this particular brand of reality tv star a different sort of legitimacy to what we were previously accustomed to. I don't see anyone questioning why it's totally okay for Kem to become BFF with Stormz, aka MC of the People. The idea of Chris and Kem spitting bars with the big boys of grime isn't just funny and endearing, it's an actual possibility that's becoming increasingly likely with each and every mention of the collaboration. And now, the prospect of two people who have just strutted off a game show with little more qualification to justify hosting *This Morning *than the fact that they'd just won £50,000 for being each others' type on paper, is just, well, casual.
The world of celebrity both feels bigger and smaller. Boundaries are falling with each social media post that invites us into their worlds, and with shows like Love Island challenging the limited views shared by some of our other favourite TV fodder (here's looking at you Made In Chelsea pals), the reality TV contestants like Gabi, Marcel, Montana and the gang who we can actually see ourselves in (you know, beyond the typically 'perfect' bodies and stuff) are being welcomed into that A-List realm with open arms.
It feels like we hold the Love Island cast to a higher esteem to the likes of *Made In Chelsea *and The Only Way Is Essex. Why? My guess is that it's because we feel like we've played a part in their journey. It's because we find it easier to align ourselves so much more closely to these pretty normal people who seemingly haven't all grown up with family fortunes and spend most of their free time trying to make scripted conversations in a pretentious bar look natural. So for a pair of guys more #relatable than most on our screens to be spotted living their best lives and partying with Stormzy isn't just exciting for them, I guess its kind of exciting for us too.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.