British pop sensation Conor Maynard: I am no Justin Bieber.
- 12 years ago
He's only 19-years-old and has a legion of female fans following his every move but Britain's Conor Maynard says he is no Justin Bieber.
Like his American counterpart, Conor became a viral sensation after posting videos of himself performing online.
His YouTube channel now has nearly 60 million hits and more than 260.000 followers.
However, those rather obvious similarities aside, musically, according to Conor he and Justin are worlds apart.
SOUNDBITE: British pop singer Conor Maynard, saying (English):
"It's very flattering to be compared to someone who is so massive in the music industry and I'm so early in my career - I've just released my first song - so it's an amazing thing to happen. At the same time, in terms of our music, it cuts through that comparison, it's kind of a different sound, we're both going for different things. Obviously I'm British as well so it's kind of got a British influence in it, a British sound in some of the tracks that I've done. I think the comparison only goes as far as the fact that we're both young and came through YouTube. In terms of the music it's two different things."
Like Justin Bieber's 'Beliebers', Maynard has extremely dedicated fans called 'Mayniacs'.
They were out in force in London on Tuesday night (April 24) to see Maynard perform songs from his forthcoming debut album.
SOUNDBITE: British pop singer Conor Maynard, saying (English):
"They do some mental things sometimes. They enjoy chasing people - well me mainly and screaming a lot. I think they've become their own breed of people. There's certain things they love to do. They love to scream, they love to chase me, they love to send me the most random messages on Twitter".
Maynard recently moved to London, but his humble beginnings started in the British seaside town of Brighton.
There, working from his bedroom, Conor recorded several songs with an old Playstation game microphone and posted them on Youtube.
His cover of British R&B singer Ne-Yo's 'Beautiful Monster' eventually led to his record deal.
Now with some big names in music lining up to collaborate with him in future, Colin is someone to watch - the album 'Contrast' will be out in July.
Kathi Urban, Reuters
Like his American counterpart, Conor became a viral sensation after posting videos of himself performing online.
His YouTube channel now has nearly 60 million hits and more than 260.000 followers.
However, those rather obvious similarities aside, musically, according to Conor he and Justin are worlds apart.
SOUNDBITE: British pop singer Conor Maynard, saying (English):
"It's very flattering to be compared to someone who is so massive in the music industry and I'm so early in my career - I've just released my first song - so it's an amazing thing to happen. At the same time, in terms of our music, it cuts through that comparison, it's kind of a different sound, we're both going for different things. Obviously I'm British as well so it's kind of got a British influence in it, a British sound in some of the tracks that I've done. I think the comparison only goes as far as the fact that we're both young and came through YouTube. In terms of the music it's two different things."
Like Justin Bieber's 'Beliebers', Maynard has extremely dedicated fans called 'Mayniacs'.
They were out in force in London on Tuesday night (April 24) to see Maynard perform songs from his forthcoming debut album.
SOUNDBITE: British pop singer Conor Maynard, saying (English):
"They do some mental things sometimes. They enjoy chasing people - well me mainly and screaming a lot. I think they've become their own breed of people. There's certain things they love to do. They love to scream, they love to chase me, they love to send me the most random messages on Twitter".
Maynard recently moved to London, but his humble beginnings started in the British seaside town of Brighton.
There, working from his bedroom, Conor recorded several songs with an old Playstation game microphone and posted them on Youtube.
His cover of British R&B singer Ne-Yo's 'Beautiful Monster' eventually led to his record deal.
Now with some big names in music lining up to collaborate with him in future, Colin is someone to watch - the album 'Contrast' will be out in July.
Kathi Urban, Reuters