Ever since the first video, “Me at the zoo,” was uploaded onto YouTube, people have been sharing their memories, their music, and their talent with the world. One of the most famous people in the world, Justin Bieber, was even found through his videos on YouTube. When he was only 14 years old he would upload videos of himself singing covers of Usher and Chris Brown, among others. Without YouTube, Bieber still had a chance at becoming famous, due his amazing voice (I could talk about him forever, but instead of doing that I will direct you to my previous blog post on him…), but because of the site he was able to be discovered quickly. And because of the help from this site, his career really took off.
Other kids have been taking a page out of Bieber’s book and uploading videos of themselves singing, dancing and doing whatever else to get themselves noticed. One of the most recent stars-in-the-making to blow up on the site is Sophia Grace Brownlee. She’s an eight-year-old girl that adorably raps, sings, and dances to Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” all in a fluffy pink tutu and princess crown. Nicki Minaj eventually caught wind of this charming little British girl that can not only rap, but also sing the chorus amazingly well. Minaj tweeted after seeing the video, “I HAVE to meet her. She is a SUPERSTAR!!! Like did u hear how she sang the bridge? The attitude? OMG!” Sophia Grace Brownlee and her backup dancer, Rosie, were then featured on the Ellen Degeneres show where they got to meet Minaj, as an audience watched on as the two lit up like they were meeting their biggest hero. Everyone agrees, this little girl has superstar potential, now it’s just a matter of watching her journey to that fame.
Last year another younger girl, Maria Aragon, was found on YouTube by Lady Gaga and some of Gaga’s other fans. Aragon performed Gaga’s “Born This Way” in her video, where she beautifully sings and plays the piano flawlessly. Aragon got put on the Ellen show, just like Brownlee, and even had a chance to sing with Lady Gaga during her tour. After this she was asked to sing for the Canadian Prime Minister and has signed a contract with a recording studio to release her own album.
Greyson Chance is another YouTube made star with over 43 million views of his performance of another Lady Gaga hit, “Paparazzi” at his sixth grade music festival. Chance skillfully plays the piano and belts out the lyrics while a shocked crowd of his peers looks on. Of course, who else but Ellen Degeneres, would find this video and ask him to come perform on her show. Chance then got a record deal and has acquired a large mass of tween fans.
So what have we learned from the stories of these four kids?
1. If you’ve, or your kid has talent get that on YouTube as soon as possible.
2. If you don’t have talent, fake it till you make it and put that on YouTube.
3. If at all possible, perform Lady Gaga (That seems to be working).
3. After posting on YouTube, tweet, write, call, do whatever you can to make sure Ellen sees this because Ellen Degeneres is clearly a YouTuber’s hero.