Fame and fortune without leaving home

Back in the old days of Hollywood, legend has it that Lana Turner was “discovered” in Schwab’s drugstore and went on to become a megastar in the movies of the 1940s and ’50s. More recently, South African born Charlize Theron was spotted by a talent scout in a bank queue in Los Angeles and has since been a Hollywood A-list female star. But these days, with online digital media, you don’t even have to leave home to be discovered to become a big star - as Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi found out.

Zee posted videos of herself singing songs that she had written up on YouTube and became an overnight sensation, according to the official YouTube blog. She was then signed by US label Bushfire Records, according to her Wikipedia entry and is currently touring the US!

Her original video of her song No Christmas For Me is below:

Zee’s YouTube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/KokoKaina where you can checkout more of her music and videos.

You can also listen to her interview on the US public radio channel NPR.

It’s really exciting to see the power of social media in helping new artists make it into the big time - and especially exciting when this happens to a fellow Malaysian!