Greyson Michael Chance top
Greyson Michael Chance (born August 16, 1997) is an American child
singer,songwriter and pianist whose April 2010 performance of Lady
Gaga's "Paparazzi" at a sixth-grade music festival became a hit on
YouTube.[1] As of June 15, 2010, his cover for the song Paparazzi has a
total viewership of over 30 million. He has two original compositions,
"Stars"[2] and "Broken Hearts,"[3] both posted on his YouTube channel
which have 4 and 5 million views respectively.
Greyson Chance was born on August 16, 1997 in Wichita Falls, Texas and
now resides in Edmond, Oklahoma.[4] In May 2010, he completed his 6th
grade year atCheyenne Middle School in Edmond, Oklahoma for the school
year 2009-2010. He is the youngest child of Scott and Lisa Chance. He
has a 16-year-old sister, Alexa, and a 19-year-old brother, Tanner, both
of whom also play music.[5] Chance has had three years of piano lessons,
but no formal vocal training. His inspiration comes from Lady Gaga and
Augustana.[1]
Chance's "Paparazzi" cover video was posted to YouTube on April 28,
2010,[6] and for almost two weeks the video generated low views. At
least two social websites,GossipBoy.ca and reddit.com, posted video
embeds on May 10, 2010. Ellen DeGeneres first saw the video after
Chance's brother, Tanner Chance, wrote to her show suggesting she watch
it.[7] The video had about 10,000 views when DeGeneres first saw it;[8]
while explaining her reasons for naming her new record label
"eleveneleven", she listed as one reason the fact that she first saw
Chance's Paparazzi cover on May 11, 2010. Also, she states that 11 is
Greyson's soccer jersey number.[9] On the afternoon of May 11, Yahoo!
Music reported: "As of this writing, the video has gotten more than
36,000 views so far, and he's even been invited to perform on The Ellen
DeGeneres Show".[1]
On May 12, 2010 Greyson Chance taped an interview and performance of
"Paparazzi" for Ellen in Los Angeles.[10] It was broadcast on May 13.
[11][12] During the interview, Chance received a phone call from Lady
Gaga,[13] who the youth says is his "true inspiration."[14] This first
appearance on Ellen was followed by a second appearance on the show,
airing May 26, 2010, on which Chance performed his original song "Broken
Hearts," received a $10,000.00 award for winning Ellen's Wonderful Web
of Wonderment contest, and was announced as DeGeneres's first signed
artist to her new recording label eleveneleven.[15] Chance now has many
fans on online social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.[16] He is the
30th most subscribed musician of all time on Youtube, with a 220,000+
strong subscriber base, as of August
On the morning of May 11, 2010, Chance's cover video of "Paparazzi" was
embedded at RyanSeacrest.com, which reported finding the video via
BuzzFeed, a website that attempts to track and predict emerging viral
internet memes.[18] Later in the day,TVGuide,[19] The Huffington Post,
[20] and Yahoo! Music's video blog, Video Ga Ga,[1] also posted articles
embedding the video;TVGuide mentioned in its article that a FaceBook fan
page had already been started for Chance. That afternoon, Ryan
Seacrestlinked the video on his Twitter account,[21] as did DeGeneres
when she announced Chance's forthcoming appearance on her show,[22] and
later in the evening on May 11, celebrity Ashton Kutcher.[23]
On May 12, 2010, DeGeneres' announcement of Chance's booking, on The
Ellen DeGeneres Show, was broadcast at different times across the U.S.
and posted to her website.[24] Wall Street Journal[25] and Los Angeles
Times,[26] among other mainstream media, posted articles embedding the
video and announcing the forthcoming appearance. That evening, ABC World
Newsbroadcast a report on Chance which was introduced by Diane Sawyer,
who said the story struck ABC News as "part Billy Elliotand part
Glee."[27] That evening, Guy Oseary, an L.A.-based entertainment manager
whose clients include Madonna, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher,
recommended Greyson's "Paparazzi" video on Twitter.[28]
On May 13, 2010, Chance's appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was
broadcast, and mainstream media, includingCBS[29] and People,[30]
reported on the appearance. That morning, Ryan Seacrest posted another
link on Twitter, this time to the video of Chance appearing on The Ellen
DeGeneres Show.[31]
On May 14, 2010, Singer, songwriter, and author David Archuleta linked
the video on Twitter claiming that Greyson "is talented."[32]
On May 15, 2010, Greyson Chance created an official MySpace page[33] and
an official Twitter[34] account.
Also on May 15, 2010, Crazed Hits, a music industry "tip-sheet" run by
Alex Wilhelm, while citing no sources, reported thatInterscope Records
had signed 12-year-old Chance to a record deal.[35] That same day,
NewsOK posted a video, "Three Things to Know about Greyson Michael
Chance", and an article in which Chance's father, was quoted as saying
the family would spend the weekend deciding how they wanted to proceed
before signing any contracts.[5]
On May 18, 2010, The New York Post reported on the deal with Interscope
Records, citing Chance's sister and father as confirming the deal; The
Post also reported that calls made to Chance's school were being
referred to Guy Oseary.[36] On May 25, Ellen DeGeneres announced that
she had formed a record label called eleveneleven and Chance was her
first artist.[37] Guy Oseary who manages Madonna's career and Troy
Carter, who manages Lady Gaga's career, would be co-managers of Greyson
Chance's career, but no partnership with a major recording label had
been finalized.[38]
The chronology of events has resulted in media analysis of the marketing
phenomenon as separate from musical or biographical elements. On May 15,
2010, The Christian Science Monitor published an article written by
Gloria Goodale, a staff writer for the publication; citing Chance's
quick rise to media attention and various official and fan websites for
Chance that had recently been established, as well as concerns raised by
music industry analyst Jeff Snyder about the quality of the video
itself, Goodale asked "whether there's a Big Media hand behind sixth
grader Greyson Michael Chance."[16] On May 18, 2010, Goodale followed up
on this article with a second article for The Christian Science Monitor
focusing on the modern "age of media manipulation", which she introduced
by saying, "Reports so far suggest that the Greyson Chance YouTube video
is legit."[39] On May 18, 2010, ITN News posted a video report to its
YouTube channel, in which many of the same questions were raised;
highlighting aspects of Chance's "Paparazzi" video, media industry
analyst Alan Stevens pointed out the growing inability within our modern
media culture to distinguish between videos which are produced by
amateurs and videos which are produced by professionals but made to
appear amateur in origin.[40]
[edit]Awards and recognition
Year Category Award Result
2010 Choice Web Star Teen Choice Awards Nominated
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyson_Chance
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