PEABODY — If you have any interest in music, you've probably daydreamed at least once about what it would be like to perform in front of thousands of people with your favorite band.
Bridget Conway of Peabody doesn't have to imagine.
In a moment that will forever be etched in her brain, the 21-year-old sang an unplanned duet with her idol, singer Josh Groban, in front of 30,000 people last Tuesday at TD Garden.
And she nailed it.
"At first I didn't know if I had a voice because I was in shock, and I had been screaming the whole first half of the concert," said Conway, who graduated from Peabody Veterans Memorial High School in 2008. "But when I heard my voice in the speakers and heard a few cheers, I thought, 'OK, I can do this.'"
The unplanned duet was all thanks to her older sister, Shannon, who also attended the show. A prompt on the big screen as they were arriving asked fans to text their questions to Groban. Without Bridget's knowledge, Shannon asked Groban if he would sing "The Prayer" with her sister during the show.
"She has a beautiful voice, and it is her dream," the text said.
"I was bored. It was kind of a joke, I really didn't think anything of it," Shannon said. "What are the odds of the questions actually getting read?"
To her shock, halfway through the show, Groban read a question from "Shannon, Section 10, Row 11, Seat 9." Suddenly, a blinding spotlight shown down on them from the heavens.
"Let me ask you something, sis," Groban said. "If we do this, let's bring it!"
He leapt from the stage, jogged to the loge-level section where the Conways were sitting and had a quick exchange with Bridget.
"This could potentially be like Boston Idol," he said referring to the popular show "American Idol." "This could be really interesting."
Bridget Conway, a musical theater major at Johnson State College in Vermont, an actress and a lifelong singer, is the last person to shrink from a spotlight, but even she had to tremble when the first piano chords of the ballad "The Prayer" began playing through the Garden speakers.
"I had to sit down because I was crying," Shannon said. "My sister's dream was coming true right before my eyes. I will never forget that."
Conway drew a deep breath and belted out the first few measures, which drew loud applause from the crowd, who seemed elated to find out that Conway was actually a really talented singer. Then Groban jumped in, and the pair finished off the song together. When it was over, he gave her a big hug and may have said 'Good job,' but she's still trying to sort that out.
"As I keep reminiscing, I remember more, but at first it was all a blur," Bridget said. "I was so in shock, my mind was reeling, and I really didn't know what was going on. It is so surreal still."
"For the first time in her life, she was speechless," Shannon said of the moments after her sister's performance. "She literally could not form words or sentences, she was so blown away by the experience."
On the train ride north after the show, the Conway sisters were mini-celebrities. Everyone wanted to know what it was like, how she felt and all about Groban. The most popular question from fellow riders was "How does he smell?" Bridget said. "Honestly, I really don't remember."
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