Posted by Adam Mattera (Entertainment Editor)
I have a lot of time for Lin Yu Chun. Well, maybe not a lot of time. Maybe more precisely 2 minutes and 59 seconds, but really that's all you need. And I'm not the only one.
As I write, there are actually 5,401,629 other people (I know because I just checked the view count) that have taken time out of their not-so-busy day to watch this YouTube clip of the 24-year-old Taiwanese talent show phenomenon belting out an alarmingly note perfect take on Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You.
(That's Whitney's not Dolly's version – so actually the unlikely diva's vocals runs are even more impressive/ironic given Miss Houston's current penchant for cancelling tour dates and decimating her back catalogue on TV appearances. But that’s another story...)
But as impressive as Lin's vocal chops may be, it seems fair to surmise that’s his pudding bowl haircut (think 90s-era Ann Widdecombe with a touch of Dora The Explorer) and chubby charms have had as much to do with this meteoric rise to global fame as his singing talents. Like Susan Boyle before him, it's that winning combination of the absurd, the sob-story, the everyday and the astounding – all delivered in a matter of seconds - that stokes the wildfire of a bonafide YouTube phenomenon. (However unlike Boyle, I'd venture it's somewhat unlikely Yu Chun will have sold 8 million album across the globe in 12 months time – he probably doesn't chime with all those overweight middle-aged Midwest housewives in quite the same way as Subo.)
With pre-publicity for Simon Cowell's latest series of the mind-numblingly popular TV freak/family entertainment show Britain's Got Talent already heating up before it's arrival tomorrow night, it's a fair bet there will be a few more YouTube phenomena popping up around the corner too.
Diverting though these YouTube mini-soap operas are, one can't help wondering if our popular culture is ever-so-slightly in danger of being reduced to an attention deficient version of Animals Do The Funniest Things meets Opportunity Knocks in a karaoke booth.
As alluring as the latest pudding bowled prodigy may be, I can’t help but side with veteran stage diva Elaine Paige on the Boyle front. When Paige described Boyle as "a virus that spread across the world in a nanosecond" earlier this year she undoubtedly had a point. (She later backtracked on her comments claiming she’s been taken out of context - as if.)
Would Joni Mitchell have been a hit on YouTube? Or Prince? Or Pavarotti? These are questions to ponder as the frequency of YouTube talent show phenomena mounts and Warhol's infamous 15 minutes of fame mutates into something like 15 seconds endlessly looping in cyberspace – or at least until the next one comes along.
Speaking of which it already has. Cue Kim Pickering Jones – aka K-Pick: the Aussie SuBo – a 42-year-old divorcee who moved Dannii Minogue and Bryan McFadden (I know...) to tears (in a good way) on Australia's Got Talent with a soaring rendition of Gershwhin’s Summertime.
Watch it and weep.