By TYLER PATRICK
Even though America has a bundle of teen stars in the spotlight, singer Austin Mahone has the potential to become the next big thing.
Mahone is a 15-year-old rising star who gained his fame from YouTube and is slowly becoming a household name. His combined use of talent, looks and personality will make him the star he is born to be.
Mahone grew up in Texas with his mom, moving between Seguin, San Antonio and La Vernia. Mahone moved back to San Antonio after his mother divorced her second husband, where he briefly attended Lady Bird Johnson High School but chose to become home-schooled due to his rising success.
Mahone has over 100 covers on his YouTube channel including “Someone Like You” (Adele), “Born to be Somebody” (Justin Bieber), “Find Your Love” (Drake), “Forget You” (Cee-Lo Green), and “It Will Rain” (Bruno Mars). All of these covers are phenomenal and show off Mahone’s singing ability.
Mahone started posting videos on Feb. 10, 2011. He soon began gaining more and more followers who fell in love with his voice. His voice is a combination of Justin Bieber and Adam Levine, but Mahone’s voice is much deeper than Bieber’s when he started out and has a bit more of an acoustic/pop feel to it. Mahone can also play the guitar and piano to accompany him in song.
Mahone’s cover of “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber became so successful that it topped the views of the original video by Bieber himself. Two of Mahone’s covers are home made music videos where he swoons fans with multiple angles and shots.
Mahone’s skyrocketed success is partly due to his major attractiveness. He is more than just a pretty face to this tween-star junkie. Mahone has a look about him that simply reads “I’m meant to be famous.” He has already gathered a large fan base of teenage girls, something other stars, like Bieber, developed early in their careers. Mahone’s fans refer to themselves as “mahomies” similar to how Bieber’s fans are called “beliebers.”
Mahone is working to increase his fan base. He began using U-Stream to do live video chats with fans, previous U-Stream sessions of Mahone can be found on YouTube. Each session lasts about an hour, where Mahone answers questions and discusses his life with viewers.
In one video, fans ask Mahone to impersonate different people, which he reluctantly does, but his impersonations are hilarious to say the least. He impersonates Miley Cyrus and Snooki, and also impersonates by acting British, Italian and country.
Another way Mahone trys to interact with fans and make himself relatable is with his account on the site Keek and by using Twitter and Instagram to keep them updated on his life regularly. On Keek, he posts small video blogs about his life, making it easy for fans to keep up with him on a face-to-face basis. He has over 400,000 followers on Twitter and is slowly rising every day.
Mahone’s style consists of a typical snapback hat, diamond studs in his ears, a chain and a collection of clothes from places such as PacSun and Hollister. This collection of popular clothes helps him create the image that people look for in celebrities.
Mahone’s ability to stay down to earth while he rises to fame is an accomplishment within itself; it is very easy to become self centered and forget your roots when the whole world starts loving you at one moment.
Mahone released his first single “11:11” on iTunes and it is currently in the top 200. The song is Mahone’s first attempt to really push himself in to the teen scene. This single can definitely make Mahone famous. The song is an upbeat pop tune with hints of acoustic sound, that focuses on making a wish at 11:11.
Mahone is just as talented, if not more, than stars like Big Time Rush, Greyson Chance and Cody Simpson. Mahone used the right form of self-advertising by using YouTube to promote his singing; it really is the best way to get one’s self out to the public in such an Internet driven world.
Mahone has the right attributes in a teen occupied industry and one can bet he won’t get lost in it. This mahomie definitely predicts that Mahone will go far in his career and could join the ranks of Justin Bieber as America’s favorite teen star.
Austin Mahone will be at the Playlist-Live event at the Walt Disney World resort on March 24-25. Tickets to the event are $75.
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