Love Island

Twitter Can’t Get Over Stormzy’s Surprise Cameo On Winter Love Island

“Did they let Maya Jama know about this?”

by Sophie McEvoy
Stormzy, and his ex, 'Love Island' presenter Maya Jama
Getty Images/Andrew Esiebo/Stringer

The new contestants are settling into life in the Winter Love Island villa, with the most recent episode seeing the introduction of two more bombshells. As the fans got to know Zara Lackenby-Brown and David Salako, Ron’s head was immediately turned by Zara, which is bound to cause some drama in the near future — particularly since he was getting pretty close with Lana.

Outside the villa, fans watching EastEnders were shocked to discover contestant Olivia Hawkins appearing as an extra in Peggy’s bar. As a ring girl and actress, Hawkins has previously worked as a body double for Shona McGarty’s character Whitney Dean on the soap. Hawkins has also been a body double for the likes of Emma Watson and Michelle Keegan and also starred as a waitress in the James Bond film No Time To Die.

But most of the discourse about last night's episode of Winter Love Island centred around new host Maya Jama and that Stormzy cameo. Fans quickly noticed the Love Island producers’ bold choice to play a Stormzy song in the third episode. As the new bombshells took Ron and Tanya on dates, Stormzy’s “Hide and Seek” could be heard in the background — a song reportedly written about his relationship with Jama. In an essay written for Vogue in November 2022, he detailed how his “responsibility” for the break-up “was still weighing heavily on him,” which prompted him to write the song featured on his album This Is What I Mean.

Love Island fans quickly took to Twitter to share their disbelief at the song choice, wondering how Jama must have felt watching that moment as a fan of the show. Below are some of the best memes and tweets responding to the unexpected Stormzy cameo.