13-year-old Greyson Chance goes on YouTube, wins TV contest & records No. 1 single

FOUND A RECENT posting on one of Greyson Chance's Internet fan sites. Came from a young girl who was "thrilled" that his first single ("Waiting Outside the Lines") had "finally" been released, because she'd been "waiting so long" for it.

Well, I guess if you're barely out of single digits, 10 months is an eternity. That's how long (and short) it's taken for 13-year-old Chance to go from middle-school nobody in Edmond, Okla., to the next big thing in pubescent pop-rock, with a No. 1 single, an unbelievable 32 million (and counting) YouTube hits and many an online debate raging over who's cuter and more talented, him or blue-eyed, 16-year-old bubble-soul singer Justin Bieber. (And if you have to ask who that guy is . . . )

"Just to be mentioned in the same breath with Justin is so flattering," said the well-spoken and friendly Chance in a recent phone chat prompted by his "special guest" status in the sold-out Miranda ("iCarly") Cosgrove show hitting the Keswick Theatre on Sunday.

"Justin is such an icon," Chance declared. "And really a cool guy. We met backstage at the VMAs [Video Music Awards] and had a great conversation. We talked mostly about the business. He told me to not lose my grounding."

That might not be so easy, given the heady mix of celebrities, deals and global promotion already in play around this talent - a strikingly strong singer and OK keyboard-pounder - "after zero vocal lessons and just a year and a half of piano studies," he calculated for me.

For those who haven't tracked the saga on TV, the Internet or their mobiles, Chance's magic moment came (and his life changed forever) way back when in April 2010, the day he sat at the piano to sing his impassioned acoustic version of the Lady Gaga hit "Paparazzi" at a hometown talent show.

As luck would have it, Chance's dad Scott had a Sony Handycam ready to capture the moment. "Dad wasn't sure he was even recording," Chance recalled with a laugh. "He's um, not very technical. In fact, he's the opposite, whatever that word is."

The video is painfully wobbly at the outset, the sound echoey throughout.

So the odd notion raised by some cynics that this clip was professionally shot is laughable.

Still, the kid sells the song like nobody's business, and the audience seated behind him (mostly young girls) seems quite caught up in the moment. When he stands and bows at the end, we see a look of triumphant surprise on Chance's face that a BBC radio commentator would later characterize as, "Yeah, I really nailed it."

No prizes were awarded. "It wasn't supposed to be a competitive thing," said the singer.

But Chance sure got his after the video was posted to YouTube. Things began taking off at an almost unbelievable pace, leaving even Chance "not sure exactly how it happened."

Depending on who's telling the story, either Chance's mother, Lisa, or his 19-year-old brother, Tanner, decided to e-mail a link to the video to daytime TV show host Ellen DeGeneres. The short-lived "American Idol" judge had come up with the idea to stage her own Internet-based talent contest, "Wonderful Web of Wonderment" and sign the winner to her own label, à la the "Idol"-linked "19 Entertainment."

DeGeneres' brand would later be named "eleveneleven."

Virtually overnight, Chance was flown to L.A. to tape an interview and smashing performance of "Paparazzi."

Even Lady Gaga herself called in (what a surprise!) to declare the kid "a true inspiration."

Other celebs quickly piled on, including DeGeneres' pals Perez Hilton and Ryan Seacrest, who linked the video to their Websites. So the hits just kept on coming. Two weeks later, Chance returned to "Ellen" and was announced as the contest winner and first to be signed to her label.

While a writer at the Christian Science Monitor would raise questions of new-age media manipulation at play here, "ABC World News" anchor Diane Sawyer bought the story whole, calling Chance's overnight acclaim "part 'Billy Elliot' and part 'Glee.' "

Now, as it's all shaken down, Madonna's heavy-hitting business adviser Guy Oseary and Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter are co-managing Chance, and Geffen Records label chief Ron Fair is supervising and contributing material to the kid's first album project, which will come out "sometime in 2011," the kid said.

"I'm actually signed to three labels - eleveneleven, Maverick [Madonna's imprint] and Geffen."

Hope there's still a little something left over for the performer. At least Chance has claimed a "co-write," good for some royalties, on the first single, which Seacrest debuted on his nationally syndicated radio show and which has enjoyed a four-week run at No. 1 on Billboard's "physical disc sales" list.

That's suggesting his fans really do want a piece of Greyson Chance, not just a digital download or video stream.

The live-your-life-your-way-themed "Waiting Outside the Lines" also is happening big overseas, the singer told me, which necessitated his late-2010 trip to Paris and London.

And didja hear? While he was chatting it up (in a pretty cute faux British accent) on the "Beeb" (BBC 1), a couple of fans from the "Glee" cast, Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale, phoned in to say how much they loved him, "but not in that way."

We gotta ask: Might Chance's next big media appearance be on "Glee"?

"That would be something," he responded coyly. "It is my favorite TV show. But I've gotta tell you, I'm not much of an actor."

Clearly, Chance identifies with everything "Glee." Like several of its fictional characters, he's a "Broadway musical freak," thanks largely to a mom who "acted in musicals and always plays show albums in the house" and who told him, when he was 8, that Chance had been given a "special gift" as a vocalist that he should use.

Almost as if he'd planned it, Chance then emitted an audible gasp into the mobile phone and explained, "I've just walked into the theater where we're performing tonight [the historic Pabst Theater in Milwaukee] and spotted this amazing chandelier. It reminds me of my most favorite show."

That would be "The Phantom of the Opera," of course.

(When pushed, Chance also reeled off a bunch of classic rock artists high on his favorites list - from AC/DC to David Bowie, Tom Petty and Queen, plus some contemporary faves like Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Snow Patrol.)

Also following the "Glee" plot line, Chance suffered his share of hard times in elementary and middle school - "being we're in Oklahoma and all" - teased for being a musical geek and wanting to perform. While no one ever threw a purple Slurpee in his face, he was a bit of an outcast, remembering that "on Saturday nights when everyone else was out partying, I'd be alone in my room, consoling myself with my music."

So it hasn't take much arm-twisting for Chance to sign up as an endorser (and maybe the poster boy) for another DeGeneres pet project, Advocates for Anti-Bullying.

Of course, now that he's on national TV and hobnobbing with the celebs, "everybody at home treats me differently . . . But I still don't think of myself as a star," Chance cautioned.

"I'm a new artist, out on my first tour, staying after the show to sign everything that the fans put in front of me. I'm just getting started."

Stay grounded, Greyson.

"The Dancing Crazy Tour" with Miranda Cosgrove and special guest Greyson Chance, Keswick Theatre, Easton Road and Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 7 p.m. Sunday, sold out, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com.