Miranda Sings is a fictional character, created and portrayed by American comedian, actress, singer and YouTube personality Colleen Ballinger, that first appeared on the Internet in 2008.[1] Ballinger displays videos of the comically talentless, egotistical, misguided and quirky character on her YouTube channel. In these videos, the character sings and dances badly, gives inept "tutorials", recounts her daily activities, discusses current events that she often misunderstands, collaborates with other YouTubers, and rants about her critics, reading examples of hate mail directed at the character on social media; she responds to them with her catchphrase: "Haters Back Off!"[2][3]
Inspired by early YouTube videos that she saw, and by rude classmates, Ballinger created the character as a satire of bad but arrogant singers who believe that posting their videos on YouTube will lead to them breaking into show business. As of July 2021, the Miranda Sings YouTube channel has more than 2 billion views and 10 million subscribers, and Miranda has accumulated more than 12 million TikTok followers and 6 million Instagram followers. The character also has an active presence on other social media platforms.
Since 2009, in addition to her internet videos, Ballinger has presented live comedy acts, in character as Miranda Sings, at first in cabaret spaces and later in theaters in New York, London, and other cities in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and elsewhere; she toured regularly beginning in 2014. Her acts include Miranda's signature off-key singing of pop music hits and show tunes, with introductions focusing on the character's backstory. Her delivery is full of malapropisms, mondegreens and spoonerisms, and the acts incorporate interaction with audience volunteers, giving a "voice lesson" to, or singing a duet with, Broadway or other musical celebrities, reading hate mail, seeking a boyfriend, and singing while being stabbed through the neck in her "magic trick". One of Miranda's 2018 tour stops was filmed and released as a 2019 Netflix comedy special.
The character has appeared in television and web series and other media. Her first network television appearance was in a 2012 episode of the TV show Victorious. In 2014, she guest-starred in character on an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In 2015, she released a New York Times #1 best-selling book, written in Miranda's voice, titled Selp-Helf.[4] Miranda is the main character in the Netflix original series Haters Back Off (2016–2017). Ballinger won a Teen Choice Award[5] and a Streamy Award for her Miranda videos.[6]
- ^ Haden, Tyler. "Miranda Sings to Santa Barbara", Santa Barbara Independent, March 4, 2014, accessed February 25, 2015
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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Keihmwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Best Sellers: Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous", The New York Times, August 9, 2015 (sales for the week ending July 25, 2015)
- ^ Harwood, Erika. "Teen Choice Awards 2015: See The Full Winners List", MTV.com, August 16, 2015
- ^ "5th Annual Winners & Nominees", Streamys.org, accessed September 18, 2015