YouTube Star Exposed: Digby Goes Down?

The story of the local girl making it big never fails to captivate. And YouTube is everybody’s hometown these days, where you can see fellow members evolve from their first post to their first million views. We all love the rags-to-riches, democratization-of-distribution legend.

That’s exactly what Hollywood Records played into with its promotions of MariĆ© Digby, a singer it had actually signed in 2005, as the Wall Street Journal uncovered today.

Digby — and it seems much of this may have been her idea — acted the innocent undiscovered talent on YouTube. But, with the help of her record label, her actions proved to be far savvier. After recording an album of original music, Digby used a common YouTube trick to make yourself turn up in frequent searches and related content — she posted videos of herself singing covers of other hit songs. And an acoustic version of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” took off.

Soon the video had hundreds of thousands of views, Digby’s version of the song was featured on radio stations from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., and she was invited to appear on Carson Daly’s late-night show. As the WSJ tells it,

“I don’t think we need a television show to find talent in America,” crowed NBC late-night talk show host Carson Daly, introducing a performance by Ms. Digby last month. “We have the Internet.” Mr. Daly’s music booker, Diana Miller, says she booked the singer through Hollywood Records’ public-relations department.

At the show’s taping, Ms. Digby gave a backstage interview that was posted online by NBC [embedded above]. “I just did this YouTube video two months ago and never, ever imagined that it would actually get me on TV or radio or anything like that,” she said. “I just did it in my living room and it blew up first on YouTube and then I guess it got to Star 98.7 and then Carson Daly found me so that’s why I’m here.”

YouTube users are already plenty skeptical of spoofs and manipulation, as we’ve written in the cases of Green Tea Girlie, LisaNova, and most famously Lonelygirl15. But the gotcha moment doesn’t always lead to your demise — if you do it right, it becomes part of your legend. After all, there are worse things that could happen to widely unknown aspiring pop stars than being exposed by one of the world’s top newspapers.

Digby may have been too manipulative, if the most recent comments on her videos in the wake of the WSJ article tell you anything. “I’m really hurt by this. She should apologize to us,” read one. But she’s got plenty of time to repent, harness the publicity, and do damage control — even Miss Teen South Carolina knows that much. The question is if people like Marie Digby singing her own songs.

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