YouTube stars don't always welcome record deals
11.02.2007, 10:23
The Dutch village of Oosterbeck is not a very big place -- population 31,944. So it must have been quite a shock when a local hotel received a phone call from Atlantic Records looking for assistance in tracking down an 18-year-old resident named Esmee Denters.
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The label representative had the astonished hotel clerk provide phone numbers for every Denters listing in the local phone book and then called each one until he reached Esmee's very surprised mom.
That call was just one of many Denters has received from artist and repertoire (A&R) reps during the last five months to discuss a potential recording contract.
Never heard of her? Well, hundreds of thousands of YouTube members have. The doe-eyed girl-next-door with a soulful voice and shy smile has become a bona fide Internet sensation. She's posted videos of herself singing Beyonce, Monica and Natalie Imbruglia covers -- using nothing but a karaoke machine and her sister's low-tech webcam -- that have been streamed almost 8 million times. Nearly 20,000 fans have subscribed to her YouTube channel to receive automatic updates, with about 200 added a day, putting her at No. 22 on the all-time most-popular list.
Denters has since traveled to the United States and met a veritable who's who of the music industry's leading executives, from Jason Flom to Antonio "L.A." Reid to Tommy Motolla. She has recorded demo tracks with Kelly Rowland and is fielding TV deals with Sony Pictures Entertainment.