Miranda Sings
Encyclopedia
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
character created in 2008 by American comedian and singer Colleen Ballinger. Ballinger displays videos of the comically talentless, egotistical and quirky character on her YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel under the username mirandasings08.
Ballinger created the character as a satire of the many videos posted on YouTube by bad singers, who nevertheless believe that this will lead to them breaking into show business. Beginning in 2009, in addition to her internet videos, which have received more than 18 million total views, Ballinger has performed cabaret acts, in character as Miranda Sings, at cabaret spaces and theatres in New York, London, and other cities in the U.S., Australia, Canada and elsewhere. Her acts often incorporate giving a "voice lesson" to a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
celebrity, reading hate mail directed to the character and singing while being stabbed through the neck.
Description
The character Miranda Sings is a satire of increasingly common YouTube videos featuring mediocre or even bad, but egotistical, singers who film themselves singing as a form of self-promotion, and who ignore the realistic or cruel comments of "haters" commenting on their videos. "Miranda" is supposedly a woman in her twenties who lives with her mother in Tacoma, WashingtonTacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
. She sings comically off-key, uses spoonerisms, is self-absorbed and has a sassy attitude. The Times describes the character as "self-obsessed and immune to criticism". She responds to viewers who take the videos seriously with the catchphrase, "Haters back off!", telling her critics that they are "just jealous" and that "haters make me famous". The character displays facial traits such as unusually active eyebrows and a crooked smile. Her head is cocked to one side, and her pronunciation quirks include an emphasis on "m" and "b" sounds and the use of a prominent hard 'g' (in such words as 'singing' and 'song'). In place of lyrics that she cannot remember, the character "scat" sings
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
. She wears lipstick drawn beyond the borders of her lips, dresses in mismatched out-of-style clothing, and often dances stiffly to the music she is performing.
Beginning in the summer of 2009, in addition to her internet videos, Miranda Sings has also performed a cabaret act at sold-out cabaret spaces and theatres in New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Dublin, and cities in Australia, Canada and elsewhere. In 2009, BroadwayWorld.com called her "the hottest, freshest and oddest breakout star in the musical theatre/cabaret scene". In her cabaret act, Miranda typically sings several songs from the musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
repertoire as well as some current popular songs; gives "voice lessons" to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
or West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
stars, such as Sutton Foster
Sutton Foster
Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress, singer and dancer. Foster has received two Tony Awards, in 2002 for her role of Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie and in 2011 for her role of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes...
, Andrew Rannells
Andrew Rannells
Andrew Scott Rannells is an American actor and singer. He performs the role of Elder Kevin Price in the 2011 Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon.-Career:...
, Shoshana Bean
Shoshana Bean
Shoshana Elise Bean is an American stage actress and singer known for her roles in Broadway musicals. She is best known for playing Elphaba on Broadway in the musical Wicked.-Early life and education:...
and to the Broadway casts of shows such as Bye Bye Birdie, Mamma Mia, Shrek, Billy Elliot (to which cast she also gave dance and acting "lessons") and Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages (musical)
Rock of Ages is a rock/jukebox musical, with a book by Chris D'Arienzo, built around classic rock hits from the 1980s, especially from the famous glam metal bands of the decade. The musical features songs from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Asia, among...
in which she is critical of the stars' performances; sings one or more duets with established musical theatre singers; reads "hate mail" that she has received on her YouTube channel; and sometimes improvises a song based on audience suggestions. She performed two shows at London's Leicester Square Theatre in May and June 2010, where she gave "voice lessons" to, or performed, with London-based theatre stars, including Leanne Jones
Leanne Jones
Leanne Jones is a British actress. She was born in Stoke on Trent and grew up in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, where she attended St Ivo School, before studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in Wood Green, in north London, graduating in 2006...
, Scarlett Strallen
Scarlett Strallen
Scarlett Strallen is a British stage actress who made her Broadway debut on 9 October 2008 at the New Amsterdam Theatre playing the title role of Mary Poppins...
, Daniel Boys
Daniel Boys
Daniel Boys is a British musical theatre actor, best known as a contestant on the BBC talent series Any Dream Will Do in 2007.-Acting Career:...
, Julie Atherton
Julie Atherton
Julie Atherton is a British actress, who is best known for her work on stage. On the 3rd of October 2009 she finished playing the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the West End production Avenue Q. She released her debut album, A Girl of Few Words on 2 October 2006...
, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Anna-Jane Casey
Anna-Jane Casey
Anna-Jane Casey is an English singer, dancer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre.-Personal life:Casey was born in Salford, Lancashire, England...
, Jon Lee
Jon Lee (entertainer)
Jonathan "Jon" Lee is an English singer and actor. Lee is best known as a former member of pop group S Club 7 who split in April 2003. He was the youngest member...
and Noel Sullivan
Noel Sullivan
Noel Sullivan , is a Welsh singer and actor. He was a member of the British pop group Hear'Say. Like the other members of the group, he won his part through the talent show Popstars.-Early life and career:...
. Since the summer of 2009, Miranda Sings has also been featured in radio and television interviews where the broadcasters play along with the character.
In her cabaret act, Miranda states that she plans to perform the role of Elphaba in Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
. During 2009, as an ongoing part of her act, she also stated that she planned to date Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson is an American actor and singer. He started in regional theater when he moved to Seattle, and after moving to New York City, made his 2002 Broadway theatre debut understudying both male leads in the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie...
(whom she does not realize is openly gay) or to find another boyfriend, but he must be talented and famous. She was photographed and videotaped together with Jackson at Broadway on Broadway 2009, confronting him about their "relationship", and finally receiving a "first kiss" from him. In 2010, she stated in her videos and cabaret acts that Jackson is no longer her boyfriend (because he never called her for a date), and so she is seeking a new, famous, talented, handsome boyfriend, such as Zac Efron
Zac Efron
Zachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and became known with his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray...
or Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop/R&B singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager...
.
In December 2009, Miranda released a Christmas EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled "Christmas With Miranda Sings". She next appeared at the 2010 Nightlife Awards and was later a presenter at the CYT Directors' Choice Awards in La Mesa, California
La Mesa, California
La Mesa is a city in San Diego County, California. The population was 57,065 at the 2010 census, up from 54,749 at the 2000 census. It was founded in 1869 and officially incorporated as a city on February 16, 1912. Its official flower is the bougainvillea....
on August 4, 2010. At the Rose Center Theater
Rose Center Theater
The Rose Center Theater is a performing arts theater within the Westminster Rose Center located in Westminster, California.It is the home of the Vietnamese American Philharmonic Orchestra, TNT Productions, and the Westminster Chorale...
on October 2, 2010, she co-hosted a benefit concert, "Broadway Memories" (which included the Sutton Foster "voice lesson"), for the Alzheimer's Association and the Capistrano Center for the Performing Arts. In 2010, Ballinger also established a YouTube video blog channel featuring Miranda Sings "discussing" various topics.
Genesis of the character
Miranda's creator, Colleen Ballinger, based the character partly on young women that she knew in the performance department of her college, Azusa Pacific UniversityAzusa Pacific University
Azusa Pacific University is a private, inter-denominational, evangelical Christian university located near Los Angeles in suburban Azusa, California. It was founded in 1899, with classes opening on March 3, 1900 in Whittier, California. It began offering degrees in 1939...
. She told The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London, "There were a lot of cocky girls who thought they were really talented, and they weren't. They were so rude and snotty, it drove me nuts. Then I saw all these girls trying to make a career out of putting videos on YouTube ... clueless to the fact that they were terrible. The characters were so ridiculous, I wanted to make one of my own." At first, the "Miranda videos were meant to be an inside joke" among Ballinger's friends. Ballinger designed the character to draw negative comments on YouTube: "People would make fun of my hair, and I made it worse.... I took what people hated and exaggerated it more in the next video."
After Miranda videos first went viral by early 2009, Ballinger was not sure what to do with her newfound internet fame. She arranged her own appearances and publicity for the first nine months but realized that she needed a professional manager. Ballinger notes, "The fact that I went from making a minute-and-a-half video in my bedroom to doing an hour-and-a-half live show is just crazy". Ballinger's first live performance as Miranda took place in the spring of 2009 when Jim Caruso invited her to perform as the character at Cast Party, a weekly show that he hosts at Birdland
Birdland (jazz club)
Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...
in New York City. Members of the Broadway theatre community became fans of the character and were eager to be a part of Ballinger's cabaret act. The composer Lin-Manuel Miranda even made a mock audition video with Miranda.
The Miranda character receives hate mail from viewers who are fooled by the character and believe that they are watching a serious video by a bad entertainer. Ballinger told Back Stage
Back Stage
Back Stage is an entertainment-industry brand aimed at people working in film and the performing arts, with a special focus on casting, job opportunities, and career advice.Back Stage publishes a weekly tabloid-sized trade magazine in the U.S...
, "It's sort of like an Andy Kaufman
Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman was an American entertainer, actor and performance artist. While often referred to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself one...
thing. You wouldn't believe the hate mail. ... You would never say that stuff to someone's face, but you can type anything online." The Times commented, "there is another, sweeter side to her travails. Miranda loves singing and, despite – or perhaps because of – the satire, becomes an evocation of something all humans love to do and have done since before we discovered language. The very act of singing, however dire the sound, makes us feel good." In April 2010, Ballinger submitted an audition to the TV show Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
"in character" as Miranda. She says that the show is causing a resurgence, in this couch potato age, of interest in singing in schools: "Everyone is talking about Glee and choirs and musical theatre, igniting a flame that has been dimmed for a long time. ... Live performance and musical theatre were almost a lost art ... people need to be reminded that it takes a lot more effort to sing than just watching movies or TV shows." Miranda agrees: "Since I became so famous in the past year, everyone is watching more music and singing more – because everyone wants to be more like me."
Reaction
Ballinger's character has enjoyed widespread popularity, particularly among musical theatreMusical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
fans, and has appeared, since mid-2009, under the alias "Miranda Sings" at sold-out live club and theater venues (with guest Broadway and West End stars) in New York (Birdland Jazz Club, Minskoff Theatre
Minskoff Theatre
The Minskoff Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre, located at 1515 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan. It is now showing the musical The Lion King, based on the Disney animated film of the same name....
, The Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
), San Francisco (The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko
JAL Hotels
JAL Hotels is a Japanese-owned global hotel management firm, majority owned by Okura Hotels since 2010. JAL Hotels' mission is to deliver the highest standards of service through a unique blend of renowned Japanese hospitality and local custom. The hotel firm's managed properties are marketed...
), Los Angeles and London (Ambassadors Theatre). She toured Australia in November 2009, Ireland in September 2010 and Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada in January 2011.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London writes that Miranda's videos have made her "a darling of the Broadway musical-theatre scene and an international cabaret star. ... It is not online but on stage that Miranda truly comes to ghastly life." In April 2010, BroadwayWorld, reviewing Ballinger's cabaret act at The Magic Castle
The Magic Castle
The Magic Castle, located at 7001 Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, is a nightclub for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It bills itself as "the most unusual private club in the world."-Nightclub:The Magic...
in Los Angeles, wrote: "Colleen Ballinger's 'Miranda Sings' persona is a very unique and original concept devised by a very creative imagination. ... Miranda is not to be missed. ... [As] the old saying goes, it takes talent to be that bad". In 2009, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote of her videos, "this footage is a major hoot", and BroadwayWorld.com described Ballinger as an "Internet Superstar." Woman Around Town calls Miranda "an atrocious, comedic masterpiece."
Miranda Sings' parody of Katy Perry
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her first year of high school, she began to pursue a...
's "California Gurls
California Gurls
"California Gurls" is an electropop song by American singer-songwriter Katy Perry and is the lead single of her third studio album, Teenage Dream. The song features rapper Snoop Dogg, and was produced by Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Benny Blanco. According to Perry, the song is an answer song to...
" video has received over 2 million hits on YouTube, and her parody of Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
's "Single Ladies
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
"Single Ladies " is a song by American recording artist Beyoncé Knowles from her third studio album, I Am... Sasha Fierce. It was released by Columbia Records on October 12, 2008 as the album's lead single, and appeared with "If I Were a Boy" as a double A-side single, demonstrating the...
" video has received over 900,000 hits. Her "Poker Face
Poker Face (Lady Gaga song)
"Poker Face" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga from her debut album, The Fame. Produced by RedOne, it was released as the album's second single in late 2008 for some markets and in early 2009 for the rest of the world...
" and "Bad Romance
Bad Romance
"Bad Romance" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the lead single from her third extended play , and second major release The Fame Monster . Written by Lady Gaga and produced by RedOne, the track was inspired by Gaga's fear of negative love relationships and the...
" parodies have each received over 700,000 hits, and her "Free voice lesson", among others, has received more than 600,000 hits. 45 of her videos have each received over 100,000 hits, and the channel's videos have received over 18 million total upload views.
External links
General- Official Mirandasings08 YouTube channel
- Mirandasings08 on Facebook
- Blog analysis of Miranda Sings
- Mark Evans interview of Miranda in London 2009
- Interview of Miranda Sings. October 2009
- Miranda Sings interview in Ireland. September 2010
- Mirandavlogz YouTube channel
Cabaret performance videos
- Miranda giving vocal coaching to the Broadway cast of Rock of Ages
- Miranda gives vocal coaching to Shoshana BeanShoshana BeanShoshana Elise Bean is an American stage actress and singer known for her roles in Broadway musicals. She is best known for playing Elphaba on Broadway in the musical Wicked.-Early life and education:...
, October 2009 at Birdland, NYC - Miranda Sings in London performing with the cast of Naked Boys Singing, summer 2009
- Miranda in Sydney Australia singing "Suddenly Seymour" with Flip SimmonsFlip SimmonsFlip Simmons is an Australian actor and musician. He is a graduate of Brent Street School of Performing Arts.He has performed with artists such as George Benson, John Farnham, Delta Goodrem, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and the Rogue Traders, Christine Anu, Paulini, Sharon and Christine Muscat , Rob...
, November 2009 - Broadway medley from Birdland performance, February 2010
- "Defying Gravity" with London cast of Wicked, June 2010
Other videos
- Miranda Sings on an episode of the show Apartment Red September 2010.
- Miranda Sings magic promo July 2010
- "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (Official Song Site) Duet with Sam HarrisSam Harris (singer)Sam Harris is an American pop and musical theatre recording artist as well as a television, stage and film actor.-Singing:...
November 2010
Colleen Ballinger, creator of Miranda Sings
- Colleen Ballinger at BroadwayWorld.com
- Seth Rudetsky interviews Ballinger about the character, January 2011