Greyson Chance

Greyson Michael Chance (born August 16, 1997) is an American singer-songwriter.

Chance was born August 16, 1997, in Wichita Falls, Texas, and grew up as a Catholic in Edmond, Oklahoma.

The youngest child of Scott and Lisa Chance, he has an older sister and an older brother, both of whom also make music.

Chance began playing the piano at age eight and had several years of piano lessons before he first went viral.

He rose to national attention in 2010 as a child singer, after his performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" went viral on YouTube and gained over 72million views.

Two of his original songs, "Stars" and "Broken Hearts", gained over six and eightmillion views respectively on his channel the following year.

He signed a joint-venture recording contract with Ellen DeGeneres' eleveneleven – an imprint of Maverick, Streamline, and Geffen Records – to release his debut commercial single, "Waiting Outside the Lines" in October 2010.

Chance's cover of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" was posted to YouTube on April 28, 2010, and for almost two weeks, the video generated low views.

At least two social websites, GossipBoy.ca and reddit.com, posted video embeds on May 10, 2010.

The next morning, it was embedded on ryanseacrest.com, which reported finding the video via BuzzFeed, a website that attempts to track and predict emerging viral internet memes.

Later in the day, TVGuide, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo! Music's video blog, Video Ga Ga, also posted articles embedding the video; TVGuide mentioned that a Facebook fan page had already been started for Chance.

That afternoon, Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres linked the video on their Twitter accounts, as did celebrity Ashton Kutcher later that evening.

DeGeneres first saw the video after Chance's brother, Tanner Chance, wrote to her show suggesting she watch it.

The video had about 10,000 views when DeGeneres first saw it.

On the afternoon of May 11, ''Yahoo!

Music reported: "As of this writing, the video has had more than 36,000 views so far, and he's even been invited to perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. On May 12, DeGeneres' announcement of Chance's booking on the show was broadcast at different times across the US and posted to her website.  The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, among other mainstream media, posted articles embedding the video and announcing the forthcoming appearance. Chance taped an interview and performance of "Paparazzi" in Los Angeles. During the interview, Chance received a phone call from Lady Gaga, who the boy says is his "true inspiration." That evening, ABC World News broadcast a report on Chance, introduced by Diane Sawyer, who said the story struck ABC News as "part Billy Elliot and part Glee." On May 13, Chance's appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was broadcast, and mainstream media, including CBS and People'', reported on the appearance.

That morning, Ryan Seacrest posted another link on Twitter, this time to the video of Chance appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

On May 15, Chance created an official Myspace page and an official Twitter account.

Chance made a second appearance on Ellen, airing May 26, 2010, on which he performed his original song "Broken Hearts", received a $10,000 award for winning Ellen's Wonderful Web of Wonderment contest, a brand new Yamaha piano, and was announced as DeGeneres's first signed artist to her new recording label eleveneleven.

While explaining her reasons for naming her record label, she listed as one reason the fact that she first saw Chance's "Paparazzi" cover on May 11, 2010.

Also, she states that 11 is Chance's soccer jersey number.

Guy Oseary, who manages Madonna's career, and Troy Carter, who manages Lady Gaga's career, would be co-managers of Chance's career, but no partnership with a major recording label had been finalized.

Because of his quick rise, including fast creations of fan sites, and high quality of the videos, The Christian Science Monitor examined the story to see if it was genuine or a clever marketing campaign, ultimately stating the "video is legit."

In May 2010, ITN News raised many of the same questions; highlighting aspects of Chance's "Paparazzi" video, media industry analyst Alan Stevens pointed out the growing inability within modern media culture to distinguish between videos which are produced by amateurs and videos which are produced by professionals but made to appear amateur in origin.

His debut single, "Waiting Outside the Lines", was released to iTunes on October 26, 2010.

It was released digitally in the UK on December 9.

The single also contained a remix featuring Filipino singer Jake Zyrus (then Charice), as well as studio versions of his covers of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and "Fire" by Augustana.

Throughout December, Chance appeared at We Day 2010 in downtown Toronto at the Air Canada Centre, where he performed the latter, and visited both Paris and London, appearing on local radio stations and giving private concerts in both cities.

His debut studio album, Hold On 'til the Night (2011) was released the following year and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200, remaining his only charting release.

On February 5, 2011, Chance entered the National spotlight again with a performance of "Waiting Outside the Lines" on CBS's Early Show, while stopping through New York on Miranda Cosgrove's Dancing Crazy Tour.

He then started the Waiting 4U tour with Australian pop/R&B singer Cody Simpson on April 9 in Ivins, Utah.

The tour ended on May 18, 2011, in Portland, Oregon.

On May 17, 2011, his second single, "Unfriend You", was released to iTunes and, on May 23, Chance visited The Ellen DeGeneres Show to premiere the single.

After the performance, Chance revealed a solid release date for his upcoming debut album, Hold On 'Til the Night, which was released on August 2, 2011.

The music video features an appearance by Ariana Grande.

On September 15, he again appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about his album, and also revealed that he had taken his first steps into acting, portraying a younger version of Jimmy Chance, the protagonist of Fox's comedy Raising Hope, in the series' second-season premiere.

The episode aired on September 20, 2011.

It was preceded by the lead single, "Afterlife", in October 2015, and followed by singles "Hit and Run" and "Back On the Wall" in the following year.

Chance released his second extended play, Somewhere Over My Head in May 2016.

Chance independently released his second studio album, Portraits (2019), which explored synth-pop and was preceded by the singles "Shut Up" and "Timekeeper".