British rapper Dizzee Rascal banished his nerves onstage at the opening ceremony of London's Olympic Games by pretending he was performing only for the dancers in the stadium instead of the millions of viewers tuning in around the world.
Do you know what? When you're up there, you're not thinking about the billion people
The hip-hop star booked the biggest gig of his career when filmmaker Danny Boyle invited him to appear in last month's (27Jul12) curtain-raising spectacular, which was watched by 27 million in the U.K. alone.
However, Dizzee refused to think about his worldwide audience, and instead turned his attention to the enthusiastic cast bouncing around him as he rapped his hit Bonkers.
He tells BBC Breakfast, "Do you know what? When you're up there, you're not thinking about the billion people. To me, I wasn't even thinking about the people around me in the stadium too much. I was performing to the dancers, because they had so much energy and so much positivity that I was kind of just performing to them and it kind of made it easier".
Dizzee, who grew up just minutes away from the British capital's Olympic Stadium, also admits he hasn't caught very many Olympic events.
He adds, "I haven't seen loads of it because I just got back from America. (After the ceremony) I was off - it's not very patriotic!"
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