She’s marrying a Chinese pop star: Torbay’s Hillary Simms on her life with Ricky Nan | CBC News

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to marry a celebrity? Hillary Simms of Torbay is about to find out.

You may not have heard of her fiancé, but in China, more than a billion people know his name — and hers.

Simms is marrying Ricky Nan, a singer and actor from Wuhan, China. The pair got together at Yale in 2017, where they were studying music. But in 2018, Nan got a phone call that would change both their lives.

“‘Mister Ricky, this is a TV show called Super Vocal that we’re about to start shooting in China,'” Nan said, recounting the call. “It’s all about classical singers and musical theatre singers. And that’s the first ever TV show like that in China.”

Nan put his studies on hold to return to China and appear on the show. And that’s when things blew up.

“That turned out to be a sensational TV show, and it kind of went viral in China,” said Nan.

“It went viral to the point that where we’re walking down the street in Toronto and we get recognized because of him,” said Simms. 

An accomplished musician herself, Simms plays the trombone professionally and teaches at Memorial University’s school of music. After their upcoming wedding, the couple plans to relocate to Chicago, where Simms has been accepted into the PhD program at Northwestern University. 

But the couple may have to get used to being recognized while walking down the street.

Click the video above to hear what happened when Simms and Nan’s engagement photos started popping up on Chinese social media.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador