With YouTube Everybody Is Famous…For 15 Seconds

Clip courtesy of the Today Show

On the weekend I spoke to with Today Weekend Edition about Youtube’s success. There was a time when in order to be famous you had to be a politician, high-profile businessman, in the arts, or maybe even a criminal. And if you weren’t famous, and you wanted to be, the chances of that occurring without some hard work and luck, just never happened. Today, YouTube is the way to become instantly famous. Who can forget Britney’s biggest fan bawling his eyes out on YouTube, or the couple in the US who got their whole wedding party to dance down the aisle, and who can forget the Star Wars Fat Kid?

All these videos have got millions of hits thanks to YouTube. And even when you become famous, like Scottish songstress Susan Boyle did on Britain’s Got Talent, YouTube can even take you to another level. After appearing on the show, the YouTube clips of her first appearance have a combined total of over 45 million hits. The reason Boyle managed an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in the US was a direct result of her YouTube video, not her appearance on the British talent show.

So, now the internet is the great equaliser in the fame stakes…wonder what people will dream up next!