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" Aspiring stars used to have to haul themselves from audition to audition for their chance at success. Now, fame-seeking musicians, actors and comedians don&amp;#039;t need to go any farther than their home computer to get noticed. YouTube has emerged as a way for hopeful entertainers to reach\u2014and impress\u2013\u2013the masses with their talent. Hard to believe? Check out 10 people whose YouTube videos took them from no-names to famous faces. 1. Justin Bieber      Long before young girls caught Bieber fever, the star behind the pop hit &amp;quot;Baby&amp;quot; was just a musically gifted boy living in Ontario, Canada. In 2007, Bieber&amp;#039;s mom posted a video on YouTube of the then 12-year-old&amp;#039;s performance at a local singing competition for friends and family to see. She continued to upload videos of her son singing covers of various R&amp;amp;amp;B songs, and his popularity grew. He was discovered by music promoter Scooter Braun, who flew him to Atlanta to record demo tapes, and the rest is history. 2. Soulja Boy Tell &amp;#039;Em      Rapper and record producer Soulja Boy Tell &amp;#039;Em can credit the Internet for helping launch his career in music. In 2004 the Atlanta-based rapper posted his music on the website SoundClick, and after getting positive feedback he created his own YouTube page. Atlanta producer Mr. Collipark took notice of the budding talent, and in 2007 he released &amp;quot;Crank That,&amp;quot; which went on to give Soulja Boy a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song. 3. Brooke Brodack      In September 2005, comedian Brooke Brodack began posting wacky short videos\u2014like one of her dancing wildly to a Romanian pop song\u2013\u2013on her &amp;quot;Brookers&amp;quot; YouTube channel. Less than a year later her videos became so popular she got an 18-month contract from Carson Daly to help develop content for his production company. And he wasn&amp;#039;t the only media figure to take notice of the rising star: The Wall Street Journal dubbed her a &amp;quot;crossover star&amp;quot; and The New Yorker called her &amp;quot;the first real YouTube star.&amp;quot; She now collaborates on a variety of other comedy ventures across the country. 4. Greyson Michael Chance      Like the rest of us, Ellen DeGeneres was so impressed with Greyson Michael Chance&amp;#039;s YouTube talent show video, in which he belted out a soulful rendition of Lady Gaga&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Paparazzi,&amp;quot; that she immediately booked the Oklahoma sixth-grader to perform on her show. The tween crooner ended up singing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show twice, and was announced as DeGeneres&amp;#039;s first signed artist to eleveneleven, her new recording label. 5. Jessica Rose      In 2006, LonelyGirl15, a teen who posted YouTube videos about her personal thoughts on life, caught the attention of millions of fans. A large part of the obsession was over speculation about whether or not the videos were real. Turns out the Web flicks were fictional, produced by a group of friends with film and Internet experience. Jessica Rose, who played Bree, a.k.a. LonelyGirl15, went on to play a role in the ABC Family show Greek as well as to appear in various movies. 6. Mari\u00E9 Digby       Singer and guitar player Mari\u00E9 Digby is best-known for her acoustic version of Rihanna&amp;#039;s hit &amp;quot;Umbrella,&amp;quot; which attracted loads of attention on YouTube in 2007. The song went on to be featured on MTV&amp;#039;s The Hills and was played regularly on Los Angeles radio stations. Though YouTube helped launch the singer&amp;#039;s success, she was actually signed by Hollywood Records in 2005. The label encouraged her to use the Web to promote her music, a good move on their part since YouTube is what ultimately helped Digby&amp;#039;s popularity soar.  7. Amber Lee Ettinger      In 2007 Amber Lee Ettinger confessed she had a crush on Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The way she spread the news? By recording a Web music video titled &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve Got a Crush\u2026on Obama&amp;quot; in which she attempts to lip sync her way into Obama&amp;#039;s heart. The video scored her appearances on Saturday Night Live, The O&amp;#039;Reilly Factor and The Sean Hannity Show. She is now pursing a music career. 8. Adam Bahner, a.k.a. Tay Zonday      In 2007 Adam Bahner, more well known as Tay Zonday, created a YouTube video for &amp;quot;Chocolate Rain,&amp;quot; a catchy, repetitive song consisting of 12 verses, one chorus and 48 recitations of the catchphrase &amp;quot;chocolate rain.&amp;quot; His video views soared\u2013\u2013as of now, it has more than 53.5 million\u2014as everyone watched, from fans to critics to musicians (including John Mayer and Green Day) who wanted to parody him. He even made it big enough to be spoofed on South Park. He also recorded a remixed version of the song as promotional material for Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper. 9. Arnel Pineda       When &amp;#039;80s rock band Journey parted ways with their lead singer in 2007, they turned to YouTube to find a replacement. After seeing a clip of Arnel Pineda, from the Philippines, perform Journey&amp;#039;s ballad &amp;quot;Faithfully&amp;quot; with his cover band The Zoo, Journey&amp;#039;s guitarist Neal Schon was sold. After an audition in San Francisco, Pineda was named lead singer of the band. 10. Lisa Donovan, a.k.a. LisaNova      Before Lisa Donovan scored a role on MADtv, she spent time in front of a much smaller camera, creating her own amateur Web videos. Back in 2006 Donovan went by the name LisaNova and uploaded comedic videos, including parodies, celebrity impersonations and pop-culture spoofs, to YouTube. Though she was just doing it for fun, her videos became wildly popular and entertainment industry execs began to take notice. All videos courtesy of YouTube. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/entertainment/a1731/10-youtube-success-stories-108958/>