We’ve all seen or heard about the rise of musical artists via YouTube. The online video channel which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year has been a fantastic platform for introducing rising talent to the world (not to mention hilarious cat videos).
A YouTube/Festival first
This year the Isle of Wight Festival brings some of those YouTube stars closer with the announcement that six YouTube artists will perform exclusive live sets over the weekend of 11-14 June.
This will be a first not only for the festival, but also YouTube and the artists themselves, some of whom already have an incredible following with millions of views of their music videos.
So who’s performing?
Here’s how Isle of Wight Festival introduces the YouTube Artists…
DanielJ
The 17-year-old singer from North London has over 460k YouTube subscribers and 30 million views. Under the YouTube artist development label PopShack, he has written with 5 Seconds Of Summer writer/producer Josh Wilkinson on single ‘I Won’t Let You Down’, and released a phone app called Alien Meerkats in order to update his fans on his latest music and news. He has covered music acts including Bruno Mars, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake.
Alice Olivia
A 22-year-old singer from Cambridge with over 3.5 million views. Signed with London-based Soko Records, she has covered acts including Rihanna, Adele and Ellie Goulding.
Myth City
A four piece rock band from the Midlands fronted by YouTube star Mazzi Maz, who has 725k subscribers and recently hosted the AAA backstage programming for MTV Brand New 2015. Their brand new single ‘Vendetta’ taken from their debut EP is out now.
Only1Noah
US-based Noah first went viral in 2012 with his bluesy cover of LMFAO’s ‘Sexy and I Know It’, which earned him more than 8 million views in less than a week. Noah, who has 435K YouTube subscribers and over 62M views, has appeared on several high profile TV shows including NBC’s Today Show, Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, Dancing With The Stars, and many other US and European radio stations.
He has opened for Ed Sheeran, Cobra Starship, Matt Nathanson and Selena Gomez, and released his debut album ‘Among the Wildest Things’ last year. Noah also played McKinley High student Roderick in the final season of Glee. His influences include U2, T-Bone Burnett, Marcus Mumford and John Legend.
Toby Randall
At aged only 13, Toby found fame on Vine with his six second long music covers, and has garnered over a million followers in just under a year. He has more than 330K subscribers and nearly 10M views on his YouTube channel. He captured the attention of Nicki Minaj, who shared his cover of her song ‘Pills N Potion’ to her social following of over 30 million, and Paramore’s Hayley Williams, who reached out to him after seeing his videos.
He has attended YouTube conventions DigiFest UK in London alongside the likes of Zoella, PointlessBlog and Elyar Fox and Social Con Chicago with Jerrome Jarr, Cameron Dallas and Nash Grier. His musical influences include: Sia, Rihanna, Beyonce, and his first Vine cover was Taylor Swift.
Hannah Trigwell
Hannah began her music career busking on the streets of Leeds, and now has over 35 million views and more than 300k subscribers on YouTube.
She toured the UK several times and released two EP’s in her final year of university whilst studying Biology, and her single ‘Headrush’ reached number 1 in Vietnam. In March (2015) she completed her seventh UK tour and is currently writing for her next EP. Hannah has played on several sold-out UK tours, supporting the likes of Josh Kumra, Boyce Avenue, Jake Bugg, Alex Goot, Wretch 32 and Lawson.
Isle of Wight Festival organiser John Giddings:
“I’m really pleased to be welcoming YouTube artists to this year’s Isle of Wight Festival! We are committed to putting on new and emerging artists each year, and with so much amazing talent on YouTube it made total sense to book some of the best acts that you can currently discover on the site.”
Candice Morrissey, Head of YouTube Music Partnerships EMEA:
“It’s amazing to see these brilliant homegrown YouTube artists join The Isle of Wight Festival line-up this year, and testament to their popularity and talent. We’ve no doubt they will bring a different dimension to the festival through their unique sounds and styles – and rock out with the best of the performers!”
