#TheCloudsToMySky: Without my fans, I wouldn’t be Sky Wongravee today

If a spoon were to come with a fork, then the clouds would come with the sky as well.

A lot of people say that celebrities and fans are a pact that comes together. In current times, though, the relationship between celebrities and their fans can become quite a complicated, or even dangerous, phenomenon. Sometimes, celebrities lose sense of themselves and their privacy, will dictate or are dictated by their fans, and could potentially alter their careers – for better or for worse – by the actions and opinions of their followers.

This is far from the case with Sky Wongravee’s fanbase, a group of people who call themselves “The Clouds to My Sky” – a relationship between the artist and his fans that is always supportive and a positive force for one another.

“The name of this fandom started after the series My Ambulance,” the actor shares with us. “That was about three years ago.” 

“I started gaining lots of fans after that role, and they felt that they wanted to have a name for that community or else it’ll just be too simplistic and scattered,” Sky explains. “They would pitch in these names, and I’d also give feedback. Then one day I asked if they liked the sound of The Clouds to My Sky – a phrase akin to the fact that clouds will always be a part of the sky, and that when many clouds gather together, they form a sky. When there are no clouds, there’s also no sky either.” He smiles.

While other foreign countries or cultures may do it differently – for Thais, celebrities and their fans connect through meeting and participating in activities together, up to the point that they’re so close, they become like family members.

“Before the pandemic, every time an event is over, we would carve out some time to spend with one another. We’d call these times The Gathering,” Sky shares. “It’s when everyone’s work is done, and we’d all come to meet, take pictures, catch up, something like that.”

One thing that perhaps makes the relationship between Thai artists and their fans different from others around the world is their close camaraderie.

When asked how it felt to watch his fandom grow into larger and larger proportions and to see it supporting him at events, Sky admits that he feels rather excited.

“I was excited, I was sweating. I didn’t really know what to do,” he admits. “I already usually don’t know how to properly act around many people, but once I realise that they are my fans, I don’t feel as tense. But I feel excited because I know that these are my people, people who have come to support me. It’s more a feeling of gratitude. It’s just so wholesome.”

The actor also shared that the times where his fans would plan to surprise him would be the ones he loved the most – whether those surprises were successful or not.

“Sometimes I’d know when they would surprise me, but I’d pretend not to know because I didn’t want to disappoint or discourage them,” he says with a smile. “One that I will never forget is the most recent one, which was a mini fan meeting held between me and my fans for my birthday. We made merit together for my birthday. We made merit in the morning, and had a mini fan meeting later on in the afternoon.”

“At the time, my birthday had already passed for over a month already, so I didn’t think there would be any surprises at all because some fans already sent me some cakes,” Sky continues. “But when I entered the mini fanmeet that day, they suddenly turned off all the lights, and held all these neon signs up with encouraging messages like “we love you” and “thank you.” I was especially happy that day.“

Some artists don’t see their fans as just the proverbial ‘fan base’ of theirs or just people who support them; they see them as part of their family. That is especially true for Sky’s case, who proudly says that the relationship he has with his fans extends far beyond the traditional stereotype. 

“My fans are very important to me, I feel like it’s such a complementary relationship. Like a mobile phone to a power bank, when you run out of battery, you have to recharge,” he explains. “These people support me when I am at events, when I am filming, when I work on projects. I feel like whenever they feel tired or exhausted from their lives and work, when we meet, we feel fulfilled. We recharge one another.”