Samraj Toor is heading into the Love Island villa just as the show’s 13th series gets under way on Monday 1 June, and the 25-year-old model has already given viewers a detail that will follow him in from the start: his uncle is Punjabi singer Jazzy B.
The Birmingham-born contestant is preparing to swap Germany for Mallorca as he joins the ITV dating show, bringing a family link to one of the best-known names in Punjabi music with him. Jazzy B has more than two million followers online, which gives Toor an instant connection that is likely to travel fast beyond the villa gates.
Toor said he comes from an Indian Punjabi family and that his modelling work has taken him to London, Spain and Germany. That life has kept him busy enough to split time between shoots and the family restaurant, where he helps his father when he is not working in front of the camera.
He said his dad does not let him forget where he comes from. In Toor’s telling, a day can begin on a set and end with him being sent to clean the coffee machine, tables and toilets at the restaurant. The routine, he said, keeps him grounded even when modelling makes him feel as if he is “on top of the world.”
There is, though, a softer edge to the family reaction. Toor said his mother wanted to know whether he really had to kiss people on Love Island and asked if a hug would do instead. He said his parents understand what he is doing and support him, but the worry is familiar enough to anyone who has watched a child leave for a highly public dating show.
That personal history matters because Toor is not entering the villa as someone looking for a fling. He said he wants something serious, but long-distance relationships are hard for him, a complication that sits awkwardly with a career that has already pulled him across borders and is now pulling him into a format built on speed, proximity and daily decision-making.
The unanswered question is whether a contestant with a celebrity family tie, a disciplined work ethic and a clear idea of what he wants can turn all of that into a lasting connection once the cameras start rolling. For now, Love Island has a new name, a new backstory and a contestant whose life outside the villa already looks busy enough to test any relationship he starts inside it.
