In the media
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.
[16] Later in the day,
TVGuide,
[17] The Huffington Post,
[18] and Yahoo! Music's video blog, Video Ga Ga,
[3] 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 Seacrest and DeGeneres linked the video on their Twitter accounts,
[19][20] as did celebrity
Ashton Kutcher[21] later that evening.
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.
[22] Wall Street Journal[23] and
Los Angeles Times,
[24] among other mainstream media, posted articles embedding the video and announcing the forthcoming appearance. That evening,
ABC World News broadcast a report on Chance which was introduced by
Diane Sawyer, who said the story struck ABC News as "part
Billy Elliot and part
Glee."
[25] Also 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.
[26]
On May 13, 2010, Chance's appearance on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show was broadcast, and mainstream media, including
CBS[27] and
People,
[28]
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.
[29] Not only has he received attention from DeGeneres and Seacrest but also, on May 14, singer, songwriter, and author
David Archuleta linked the video on Twitter claiming that Greyson "is talented."
[30]
On May 15, 2010, Greyson Chance created an official
MySpace page
[31] and an official Twitter
[32] account. The same day, Crazed Hits, a music industry "tip-sheet" run by Alex Wilhelm, while citing no sources, reported that
Interscope Records had signed 12-year-old Chance to a record deal.
[33]
The 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.
[34]
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.
[35] On May 25, Ellen DeGeneres announced that she had formed a record label called eleveneleven and Chance was her first artist.
[36]
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.
[37]
The chronology of events has resulted in media analysis of the
marketing phenomenon separately from musical or biographical elements.
On May 15, 2010,
The Christian Science Monitor
published an article by staff writer Gloria Goodale; citing Chance's
quick rise to media attention and the establishment of various official
and fan websites for Chance, 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."
[14]
On May 18, 2010, Goodale followed this up with a second article
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."
[38]
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.
[39]
His debut single title "
Waiting Outside the Lines"
was released to iTunes on October 26, 2010. It was released digitally
in the UK on December 9. The single also contained a studio version of
his cover of
Lady Gaga's
"Paparazzi". In early December 2010 he visited both Paris and London,
appearing on local radio stations and giving private concerts in both
cities.
[40][41]
On February 5,
[42] Greyson Chance entered the National spotlight again with an appearance/performance of "Waiting Outside The Lines" on the CBS
Early Show, while stopping through New York on his tour with
Miranda Cosgrove.
On May 17, 2011 his new single "Unfriend You" was released to iTunes.
[43]
On April 9, he started the
Waiting 4U tour with Australian pop/R&B singer
Cody Simpson in Ivins, Utah. The tour ended on May 18, 2011 in Portland, Oregon.
On May 23, Greyson visited
The Ellen DeGeneres Show to
premiere his new single, "Unfriend You". After the performance, Greyson
revealed a solid release date for his upcoming debut album,
Hold On 'Til the Night, which was released on August 2, 2011. The music video features a cameo from
Victorious star,
Ariana Grande.
[44]
On September 15, he again appeared on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about his album, and also revealed that he had taken his first steps into acting, portraying a younger version of
Jimmy Chance, the protagonist of
Raising Hope, in the series' second season premiere.
[45]
In March 2012, Greyson returned to Asia, this time with his full
four-part band, and gave full concert performances in Kuala Lumpur,
Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila, before going on without the band on a
promotional tour to
Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and
Bangkok,
Thailand. In early July he was back in the region for promotional and TV appearances in Hong Kong and
Changsha (
Hunan Province,
China). In August he performed at the
MTV-
CCTV Mandarin Music Awards show in
Beijing, and won the award for Most Popular New International Artist of the Year.
[49]
As of 2013, Greyson is currently in the process of writing and recording his sophomore studio album.
