A-list bromance

What happens when you put James Reid, Sam Concepcion and Billy Crawford in one room?

What happens when you put James Reid, Sam Concepcion, and Billy Crawford in one room?

“It’s a mutual admiration society we have here.”

That is what Sam Concepcion said with a big smile when he got together with Billy Crawford and James Reid for the press conference of the Viva Live-produced concert “The Cr3w” set for April 5 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Before Sam’s pronouncement, Billy and James had praised him.

“He is one of the dopest performers I’ve seen. From the time he was starting out, I knew he was the real thing,” Billy said.

“Sam is my favorite singer,” added James. “He’s a better singer and dancer than Chris Brown. Sam is legit and he’s good at what he does. I admire him.”

Billy reserved his best compliments for James.

“James is passionate about music. He’d be listening to music on his phone and he’d go to you all excited saying, ‘Check this out.’ And he’s got his own record label!”

The three singer-actor-TV personalities’ mutual admiration society started when Billy met James through Sam. They hit it off right away because of music, particularly R&B-tinged pop and dance music.

“We all love Usher,” Billy revealed. “That’s why our sound is heavily into urban music.”

Billy and James have already collaborated on a track. After a decade away from music, The former released recently the song “Filipina Girl” featuring producer Marcus Davis, with James sharing vocal duties on the track.

At 36, Billy, of course, has more experience in pop. And once upon a time, in his 20s, he had a hot career as dancepop-R&B artist in Europe.

Clearly James and Sam’s senior, Billy was chided about his age, to which he just laughed and replied “being around them makes me feel young.” James helped out and said “I really like Billy’s new album” referring to the TV hosts’ batch of still-to-be released set.

Incidentally, the three are under same management. And it is where the seeds of a proper collaboration between them were planted and soon yield “The Cr3w.” The guest performers are Nadine Lustre, Coleen Garcia, and Yassi Pressman, with Marcus as musical director.

Without revealing too much, Billy said, “We’ll be singing our own songs and our favourites – plus a lot of special things will happen that night. This is a party they wouldn’t want to miss.”

“We’re going to have our gimmicks and some special things that we’ll do for the show,” James hinted.

“We’ll make sure the audience leaves the show happy,” Sam promised.