The video-sharing website YouTube has given hope to millions of people who believe that posting clips of themselves singing, dancing, or telling jokes on the platform will automatically lead them to make their big breakthrough and get into show business. This thought led to the creation of the fictional character Miranda Sings by the American comedian, actress, and YouTube personality Colleen Ballinger.
Ballinger created Sings to satirize people who seem to have no talent, but still, aimlessly try to pursue their dream. The character does this by publishing videos showing her as a comedically untalented, selfish, misguided, and quirky person who sings and dances terribly, scolding and abusing her critics, expressing opinions on things she obviously doesn’t understand, and also giving incompetent instructions. In addition to the YouTube videos, Ballinger has appeared as her character Miranda Sings in live comedy shows around the world and has also appeared in several television and web series.
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Who is Miranda Sings?
The character Miranda Sings was created in 2008. According to its creator, it was based on students at her college, Azusa Pacific University, who thought she was very talented and therefore could treat other people very badly. The supposedly exuberant girls, who were barely aware of the fact that they lacked any kind of talent, tried to make a career out of it by posting videos of themselves singing in their bedroom on YouTube, hoping to be discovered by a talent manager or record company.
As a result, Colleen Ballinger began imitating these girls to her friends, which proved to be very amusing. What began as an inside joke among friends turned into a viral hit on YouTube when she started publishing videos of herself singing off-key and becoming arrogant. Ballinger’s YouTube channel was moderately visited until March 2009, when she uploaded a tutorial-like video of her allegedly coaching people to sing. This video drew widespread criticism but provided more ammunition for use as the character would put more emphasis on what commentators were complaining about. Many people at the time did not know that it was a parody, but instead mistakenly thought of Sings as a real person who wanted to make a cheap living. They believed that they were watching a serious video of a bad entertainer and therefore let it go viral, as they largely made fun of how stupid it was.
By mid-2019, Miranda Sings had become a huge online sensation. Around this time, Ballinger began accepting invitations to bring her character’s performance to the streets, as she had gained a large fan base and was embraced by the Broadway/music theatre community. Her very first performance took place at Jim Caruso’s jazz club Birdland in New York City, where he hosts a weekly show called Cast Party. She soon began appearing at various events both inside and outside the United States and has succeeded in attracting great personalities to perform in her show. Some of the great artists who performed alongside her were Frankie Grande, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Scarlett Strallen, Daniel Boys, and many others.
Facts You Need To Know
The YouTube channel Miranda Sings YouTube has nearly 10 million subscribers who have seen its more than 750 strong videos nearly 2 billion times. The channel’s most popular video was the parody of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”, which had more than 55 million viewers before it was removed from YouTube. Currently, six of their videos have attracted more than 20 million viewers, with generally more than 200 videos viewed more than 2 million times each. With such high numbers, Forbes Magazine ranked number five on its list of top influencers on entertainment in 2017.
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Ballinger has won a Teen Choice Award and a Streamy Award for her performances and videos as sings. In 2009, she released a Christmas EP entitled “Christmas With Miranda Sings” and in 2015 she published a New York Times #1 bestselling book entitled Self Helf, written with Miranda’s voice. In 2016, Ballinger wrote, produced, and played the role of Miranda in the Netflix series Hater Back Off (2016-2017), which explored the origins and family life of her character.
Television shows in which Miranda Sings has appeared include Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Victorious on the Nickelodeon network.
