Miranda Sings is an internet meme character created in 2008 by American comedian and singer Colleen Ballinger.[1] Ballinger displays videos of the comically talentless, egotistical and quirky character on her YouTube channel under the username mirandasings08.[2]
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 19 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 celebrity, reading hate mail directed to the character and singing while being stabbed through the neck.
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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.[3][4] "Miranda" is supposedly a woman in her twenties who lives with her mother in Tacoma, Washington.[5] She sings comically off-key, uses spoonerisms, is self-absorbed and has a sassy attitude.[6] The Times describes the character as "self-obsessed and immune to criticism".[3] 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".[7] 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').[5] In place of lyrics that she cannot remember, the character "scat" sings.[8] 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.[9][10]
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, and Dublin, and cities in Australia, Canada and elsewhere.[11][12] In 2009, BroadwayWorld.com called her "the hottest, freshest and oddest breakout star in the musical theatre/cabaret scene".[13] In her cabaret act, Miranda typically sings several songs from the musical theatre repertoire as well as some current popular songs; gives "voice lessons" to Broadway or West End stars, such as Sutton Foster, Andrew Rannells, Shoshana Bean 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[5] in which she is critical of the stars' performances; sings one or more duets with established musical theatre singers;[14] reads "hate mail" that she has received on her YouTube channel; and sometimes improvises a song based on audience suggestions.[15][16] 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, Scarlett Strallen, Daniel Boys, Julie Atherton, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Anna-Jane Casey, Jon Lee and Noel Sullivan.[17][18] Since the summer of 2009, Miranda Sings has also been featured in radio and television interviews where the broadcasters play along with the character.[6][19]
Miranda says that she not just a "triple threat", but a "four threat", because she "is also a model".[3][20] In October 2010 she asserted that she is a "five threat" talent, posting a video in which she performs magic in a comically inept way while singing.[21][22] A regular part of her cabaret act since October 2010 includes a magic trick where Miranda sings while appearing to be stabbed through the neck by a sword, often by her magician brother, Christopher Ballinger.[23]
In her cabaret act, Miranda states that she plans to perform the role of Elphaba in Wicked. During 2009, as an ongoing part of her act, she also stated that she planned to date Cheyenne Jackson (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.[24] 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[25] or Justin Bieber.[26]
In December 2009, Miranda released a Christmas EP entitled "Christmas With Miranda Sings".[27] She next appeared at the 2010 Nightlife Awards[28] and was later a presenter at the CYT Directors' Choice Awards in La Mesa, California on August 4, 2010.[29] At the Rose Center Theater 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.[30] In 2010, Ballinger also established a YouTube video blog channel featuring Miranda Sings "discussing" various topics.[31]
Miranda's creator, Colleen Ballinger, based the character partly on young women that she knew in the performance department of her college, Azusa Pacific University.[5] She told The Times 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."[3] At first, the "Miranda videos were meant to be an inside joke" among Ballinger's friends.[32] 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."[33][10]
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".[32] 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 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[32] and Ballinger has made a living ever since by performing her cabaret act in character as Miranda.[10] The composer Lin-Manuel Miranda even made a mock audition video with Miranda.[34]
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, "It's sort of like an Andy Kaufman thing. You wouldn't believe the hate mail. ... You would never say that stuff to someone's face, but you can type anything online."[5] 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."[3] In April 2010, Ballinger submitted an audition to the TV show Glee "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."[3]
Ballinger's character has enjoyed widespread popularity, particularly among musical theatre fans,[2][10] 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, The Town Hall),[35][36] San Francisco (The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko), Los Angeles and London (Ambassadors Theatre).[37][38] She toured Australia in November 2009,[39][40] Ireland in September 2010 and Alberta, Canada in January 2011.[41]
The Times 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."[3] In April 2010, BroadwayWorld, reviewing Ballinger's cabaret act at The Magic Castle 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".[16] In 2009, the Los Angeles Times wrote of her videos, "this footage is a major hoot",[2] and BroadwayWorld.com described Ballinger as an "Internet Superstar."[42] Woman Around Town calls Miranda "an atrocious, comedic masterpiece."[43]
Miranda Sings' parody of Katy Perry's "California Gurls" video has received more than 2 million hits on YouTube, and her parody of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" video has received over 900,000 hits.[44] Ten of her other videos have more than 500,000 total views, including her parodies of "Poker Face",[45] "Bad Romance"[46] and Firework[47] and her "Free voice lesson".[48] 45 of her videos have each received over 100,000 hits, and the channel's videos have received more than 19 million total upload views.[49][50]