YouTube FanFest Canada took over a central square in down town Toronto Saturday night, with some of the biggest Canadian ‘YouTubers’, those YouTube creators, taking to the stage live.
The city rolled out the red carpet, for people like JusReign, and Superwoman, and LaurDIY. The one-day event, the North American premiere, was hosted by the bearded Montreal quartet known as Epic Meal Time.
They all drew a crowd of over ten thousand avid fans but this pales in comparison to the millions of followers these home grown entertainers and instructors have garnered on the web.
Canada ranks third as the country with the most creators of content for YouTube.
“There is an amazing amount of creator talent here that is disproportionate to the size of the Canadian market,” said Laura Lee, YouTube’s global head of top creators, in an interview with CBC News.
“I was lucky to be able go to my first Fan Fest in Mumbai this past year,” said Lee, “and Superwoman, aka Lilly [Singh] and JusReign literally just shut it down.”
Lilly Singh posts videos as ‘Superwoman’. She says she was amazed when she hit a million subscribers, but now finds herself at 5.6 million followers. Her first, rather serious spoken word post was in 2010 and had 70 hits. Now, having evolved into comedy with some hilarious characters she is taking her show on the road in a world tour! But she vows she won’t neglect YouTube as she travels.
Jus Reign has people howling with his take on everything from ‘Packing for India’ to ‘The BEST Racists’ and ‘How to Avoid Arranged Marriages’. He sends up stereotypes from every angle and background and makes his well-edited silliness and increasingly complex productions, look easy.
There were some other much-viewed stars, LaurDIY is ‘do-it-yourself’ guru Lauren Riihimaki of Toronto, and from the United States as well, funny girl Jenna Marbles and make-up maven, Bethany Mota, who started sharing he love of make-up six years ago when she was thirteen.
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