The influence YouTube has on singers

YouTube cannot just change the life of a YouTube artist, but can help making people from, for instance X Factor UK more famous in other countries as well. Many people, especially teenagers, regularly upload songs they covered on YouTube in the hope of getting as many subscribers and views as possible. With a lot of luck and when the right people share your videos in the right moment, you can even get discovered and maybe have the opportunity to sign a record deal.

A teen-pop legend became famous through this YouTube phenomenon – yes, it’s the super-cute Justin Bieber! Justin has been discovered by Usher himself, who firstly met and sang with him and secondly offered him to sign a record deal and have Usher as his producer. Here’s the video of him singing to Usher:

Many YouTube artists have been discovered and given the opportunity to record an own song with a music video to it, but mainly they hadn’t much success with it and therefore rejoined their career as a YouTube cover artist again. This happened to Savannah Outen, Charice Pempengco, Esmee Denters and many more.

Then there are these artists that are brilliant, record some own songs with a music video, but somehow don’t get the opportunity to sign a record deal. Megan and Liz are the best example, because they already recorded lots of own songs and even met the band Plain White T’s and sang a song with them.

I really hope these two sisters will make it far because they would absolutely deserve it to get famous. They really have talent and nevertheless don’t have a record deal, but Justin Bieber, who is in my opinion an average singer, became famous at the age of 15. Somehow unfair, but Megan and Liz will make their way as well :)

Another way of getting recognized by the world as a YouTube artist is through the amazing Ellen DeGeneres. As she is the most generous person on earth, she is also interested in helping unknown artists getting discovered. This happened to Greyson Chance, who has been invited to Ellen’s show to perform Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi”. Maria Aragon has been invited to her show as well. She sang Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”, which was so stunning that Lady Gaga herself saw her video on YouTube and invited her to perform a song with her on one of her concerts in Toronto! 

This event definitely made her popular and because of the fact that Ellen’s show is not only broadcasted in American television, but is uploaded on her YouTube channel as well, makes her popular in even more countries. Because when people like me watch her show on YouTube, see Maria Aragon’s video and share it, it will absolutely help her to get more popular.

In general there are not so many ways of getting recognized as a YouTube singer and even if you get discovered, it doesn’t have to mean a total success. What I experienced is that the success of singers that have been discovered by Ellen lasted the longest. It’s a difference if you record an own song and shoot a music video that’s only published on YouTube, or getting the opportunity to sing at a talk show and be seen by many many more people. YouTube does indeed influence YouTube singers, which is actually a positive thing, but in most cases it doesn’t help them to become famous anyway.