Video-sharing site YouTube has given hope to millions who believe that posting clips of themselves singing, dancing or telling jokes on the platform will automatically lead them to grab their big break and get into show business. This notion was behind the creation of the fictional character Miranda Sings by comedian, actress, and YouTube personality, Colleen Ballinger.
Ballinger created Sings to satirize people who seem to have no talent but are still aimlessly trying to pursue their dream. The character does this by posting videos that present themselves as a talentless, selfish, bewildered and offbeat person, who sings and dances horribly, who rails for and abuses their critics, who gives opinions on things they don’t not understand and which also provides incompetent tutorials. In addition to YouTube videos, Ballinger as her character Miranda Sings has performed on live comedy shows around the world and has also appeared in a few TV and web series.
Who is Miranda Sings?
The Miranda Sings character was created in 2008. According to her creator, she was based on the students at her university, Azusa Pacific University, who felt they were very talented and therefore could treat others very badly. The supposedly cocky girls, unaware of the lack of talent, tried to build a career by posting videos of themselves singing in their bedroom on YouTube, hoping to be spotted by a talent manager or record company. ..
For this reason, Colleen Ballinger began to imitate those girls to her friends, who turned out to be very funny. What started as an inside joke between friends later turned into a viral hit on YouTube as she began posting videos of herself flippantly and arrogantly singing about it. Ballinger’s YouTube channel garnered moderate opinions until March 2009, when she uploaded a tutorial-like video about herself, purporting to get people singing. This video drew a lot of criticism, but it did, however, provide more ammunition, with the character putting more emphasis on whatever commenters were complaining about. A lot of people at the time didn’t know it was a parody, but instead, they mistook Sings for being a real person looking to make a living on the cheap. They thought they were watching a serious video from a bad artist, which made it go viral, because they largely laughed at the stupidity.
By mid-2019, Miranda Sings had become a massive online sensation. Around the same time, Ballinger began to receive amusing invitations to take her character’s performance on the road, as it had achieved enormous success and was highly regarded by the musical theater and Broadway community. His very first show was at Jim Caruso’s Birdland jazz club in New York, where he hosts a weekly show called Cast Party. She soon started performing at different events both in the United States and elsewhere and was able to attract huge personalities to make an appearance on her show. Frankie Grande, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Scarlett Strallen, Daniel Boys, among others, were among the biggest acts that would perform alongside him.
Facts you need to know
Miranda Sings YouTube channel has nearly 10million subscribers with videos of over 750 videos, nearly 2 billion. The channel’s most popular video was Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” parody, which had more than 55 million views before YouTube took it down. Currently, six of his videos have attracted more than 20 million views, with more than 200 videos having been viewed more than 2 million times each. With numbers that high, Forbes magazine ranked her number 5 on its list of the most important entertainment influencers of 2017.
For his performances and videos as The Sings, Ballinger won a Teen Choice Award and a Streamy Award. In 2009 she released a Christmas EP called “Christmas With Miranda Sings” and in 2015 she released a New York Times #1 bestselling book called Yourself which was written in Miranda’s voice. In 2016, Ballinger wrote, produced and starred as Miranda in the Netflix series Hater Back Off (2016-2017) which explored her character’s origins and family life.
Some of the TV shows MirandaSings has appeared in Comedians in Cars Café with Jerry Seinfeld, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Victorious on the Nickelodeon Network.