Esmée Denters – YouTube pop music sensation – recently sat down with Kiss 100's DJ Swerve after opening for Ne-Yo at the O2 arena in London.
The Video
Watch the backstage footage of Esmée Denters talking to DJ Swerve about building a base on YouTube, getting signed and meeting Justin Timberlake for the first time.
The Bio
Esmée Denters is one of the first artists signed to Justin Timberlake’s Interscope imprint Tennman Records. Hard to believe when, just two years ago, this Dutch 20-year-old was a pancake house waitress with a webcam and a dream.
Esmée Denters was 17 when she began posting videos of herself on YouTube singing her favorite hits by Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Pink and Natasha Bedingfield from her home in the Netherlands. When the videos were a hit and viewers started to make requests, Esmée Denters was encouraged and began posting several clips a week, including songs she’d written herself. Within nine months, Esmée Denters’s videos had racked up 21 million views and she became the No. 1 Most-Subscribed to Musician in the history of the popular video-sharing website.
It may have been her YouTube popularity that led Justin Timberlake to seek out Esmée Denters, but it was her silky, soulful voice, natural charisma, and songwriting talent that sold him on signing her to his label. In the summer of 2007, Justin and Esmée Denters began to write songs together. The result is an edgy, soulful pop-R&B set. The first single, Outta Here is a hybrid of urban beats, pop lyrics and rock attitude. The playful, doo-wop-laced Eyes For You, the sassy, retro-vibed Admit It and the feisty, urban-flavored anthems Love Dealer and Victim capture the side of Esmée Denters who wants to go out and dance and have fun. The acoustic-flavored Just Can’t Have It and the epic-sounding, string-laden Gravity show she can also sing about serious stuff.
For Esmée Denters, working with Justin Timberlake and other stars is just another thrilling part of a journey that has been full of surreal moments - like stepping onstage for her first-ever live performance as the opening act for Timberlake on the European leg of his FutureSex/LoveShow Tour in June 2007. The girl who had previously only sung for her webcam was suddenly performing for nearly 70,000 people at the Amsterdam Arena in Holland.
Esmée Denters was also invited to appear a few months later on The Oprah Winfrey Show as part of an episode spotlighting YouTube sensations.
Esmée Denters knows her path to stardom has been unlikely and she is thankful for everything that has happened to her, from building a loyal fan base on YouTube (her official channel alone has now racked up more than 133 million views), to scoring a record deal with one of her musical idols, to being able to realize her dream of making an album of songs she’s extremely proud of.
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