Iokua Promotions

Which YouTube artist is a girl who loves Zelda, along with basically any video game, especially Nintendo? Who has a beautiful natural voice? If you guessed Christina Grimmie, than you would be the big winner!!! Of course her name being in the title could have given you the answer. Oh well, I suck at games ;)

I'm not entirely sure how I first came across Christina Grimmie. It was probably one of those late nights I spent watching various random covers on YouTube. Thank you YouTube for having "related videos" or else I probably wouldn't know about half the artists I do now. It doesn't really matter how I discovered Christina, what matters is her music.

My vocabulary for describing music is limited, but what I can say is her voice is unique, soothing, and has that "attitude" in it that grabs people. She can almost always be seen with her piano in front of her. She never plays any instrumental tracks on the computer, its always a live performance for her covers. And what is crazy is that she doesn't read music, she plays it all by ear. Now that takes talent. In my opinion, the song that really put her on the map is her cover of Nelly's "Just A Dream", where she performed with Sam Tsui. That song gave me goosebumps. I even showed it as a part of a presentation in one of my college classes and I could just see everyone's jaws dropping from amazement. Check it out for yourself:



Are you amazed yet? You better be. Christina Grimmie is definitely one of the big stars of YouTube. She has over 500,000 subscribers. That is an incredible feat. She is even on Billboard's Social 50 Chart, at #14. So why all the hype? Christina has that pop voice that is often hard to find in YouTube artists. Don't get me wrong, there are many extremely talented people on YouTube and I have no doubt many of them will do great in their music careers, but I can easily see Christina becoming the next YouTube artist to go mainstream. She even has the right connections, being friends with Selena Gomez, and performing with her on occasion. Currently she is in the process of talks with record labels, as she had meetings with them in LA.

My main purpose of this article is to promote Christina in the MyYouTube competition. Basically YouTube is having a contest, which is mixed with unsigned YouTube artists and current mainstream artists in an effort to get more subscribers. From what I can tell Christina is currently in first, but her friend Selena Gomez is not too far behind. So what can you do? Well, even if you are already subscribed to her, go to the MyYouTube page and find Christina. From there you click on the Subscribe button, along with subscribing to channels she suggests. This gives her points, and you can be entered for a chance to win prizes. You can do that here: MyYouTube Contest

Lastly, I want to end on a fun note. Christina's fun personality is what really drew me in, and you can see that side of her in this video with Tyler Ward:



Thanks for reading, now be sure to check out her channel, but for now, subscribe though the MyYouTube contest!

Christina Grimmie's YouTube

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 It is that time again for a featured artist post. This time, it is about Alex Goot. I found this artist through Tyler Ward. That seems to be a recurring thing lately....well thank you Tyler Ward for helping me find these great artists! Tyler Ward and Alex Goot collaborated on a cover of Katy Perry's "Firework" and did a wonderful cover of it. But it wasn't that cover that really peaked my interest.

At first, I thought Alex Goot was not bad, but did not impress me just yet. I still subscribed just to see what else he could come up with. It was when I heard his cover of Bruno Mars' "Grenade" that I was sold. I thought to myself "this guy is talented!". In "Grenade" Alex sings with so much ease and control. It has been hard for me to find a great male cover of "Grenade". This one is no doubt my favorite cover of the song.

 Each of Alex's songs/videos are very well produced and although I miss when artists would just sit in front of their camera and sing with their instrument. I guess we have such easy access to all this great technology, that we might as well use it. One video that I think is done beautifully is for his original song "Breathless". First of all, his songwriting is perfect. It is deep and hits you right in your soul. The video captures that. It is an intimate setting with Alex playing the piano with a dark, intimate background and the light is just on him and the piano. I have to say watching it left me...well...breathless.

As I stated before, Alex has done a collaboration with Tyler Ward, but he has also done one with Christina Grimmie and they do a great rendition of Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love". I hope to see many more collaborations that Alex Goot is involved in, because he has such a unique voice that could re-create any song into something much better.

Lastly, if you are on the east coast, check out Alex Goot performing with Boyce Avenue in their east coast shows! And subscribe to Alex Goot on YouTube!

www.youtube.com/gootmusic












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This post I bring you info on a new show coming to NBC called The Voice. It is based of the show The Voice of Holland. And as they say, "It's all about the Voice and only the best need apply!".

So you may be thinking "Okay another singing competition show, what makes it different than American Idol?". Well with American Idol, viewers have argued that contestants aren't just chosen based on their talent, but their looks too. When in a singing competition, it should be the person's talent that matters most. The Voice has a strategy to assure that only the most talented are chosen, and that they aren't chosen based on their looks, which is sometimes just done subconsciously. This strategy is the Blind Auditions. During these auditions the judges won't be able to see what the contestants look like, so they aren't distracted or influenced by appearance. After these auditions, the selected contestants then will be mentored by the judges, who are industry professionals, to help further their voices and get closer to winning the grand prize of a recording contract.

Open auditions are starting next Friday and they kick off in Chicago, IL. They will continue all over the nation. See locations and dates below:

• Chicago, IL - January 14, 2011
  Superior St - 2744 W. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60612 
• New York, NY - January 15, 2011
  S.I.R. Studios - 520 W 25th St. (b/n 11th & 12th Ave), New York, NY 10001 
• Miami, FL - January 21, 2011
  S.I.R. Studios - 12200 NE 14th Ave., No. Miami, FL 33161 
• Nashville, TN - January 22, 2011
  S.I.R. Studios - 1101 Cherry Ave., Nashville, TN 37203 
• Minneapolis, MN - January 28, 2011
  Taylor Sound - 2921 N. 2nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55411 
• Austin, TX - January 29, 2011
  Music Lab - 500 E Saint Elmo Rd., Austin, TX 78745 
• Los Angeles, CA - February 4, 2011
  CenterStaging - 3350 Winona Ave, Burbank, CA 91504 
• Seattle, WA - February 11, 2011
  S.I.R. Studios - 3631 Interlake Ave North, Seattle, WA 98103

If you cannot make it to any of the locations for the auditions, contact them. Don't quote me on this, but I believe I read somewhere that they may be making other arrangements for those that can't make it to these. I don't know what these other arrangements may be but I think it would be great if they held YouTube auditions, like America's Got Talent has done in the past. It doesn't hurt to email them and find out!

I see a great amount of potential in this show, especially since American Idol seems to be dieing out, with all the judge changes. I recommend that all of you YouTube artists (min age 18) try out for this when it is near you! For more info and to register, go to: NBC's The Voice. To end, here is the new promo for The Voice:




Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to follow Iokua Promos on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. Retweet and tell your friends!

First post of the new year! Meant for it to be sooner, but things have been a little hectic, but here you go!

If you are as passionate/obsessed with YouTube artists as I am then there is no way that you haven't heard of Tyler Ward. But for those of you that haven't heard of him, I consider him to be the "top dog" of YouTube artists. So who is this Tyler Ward????

Tyler Ward is a singer/songwriter from Colorado. The thing is, he originally was pursuing football. He soon realized in college that his calling was music. He often skipped classes and football practices so he could finish writing his songs. He first realized that he wanted to become a national recording artist when he opened for The Fray, Jonas Brothers, Gavin Degraw, Augustana, and Ryan Cabrera. His talent in songwriting and singing has even attracted some major label professionals.


YouTube

Tyler Ward's presence on YouTube is phenomenal. He has around 340,000 subscribers and 85 million total upload views. That is an incredible feat for a YouTube musician. Recently he has discovered that he has a large following in Germany and in recent videos has done some shout outs to his German fans.

Most of his YouTube videos consist of him doing covers of popular mainstream songs, but he does have originals that he posts pretty often. He has good control over his voice and it is very marketable. I haven't found one song of his yet that I do not like. Labels would be stupid not to sign him.

What I admire about him the most is his ability to work with and help fellow artists. He held the Tyler Ward's USA Live Lounge contest that allowed other YouTube artists to compete to win the prize of flying to Colorado and recording with him. Kaitlyn Rosenblum won that contest (You can read my post about her here). Tyler constantly does collaborations with other artists, and he is rarely seen doing a video by himself. He often collaborates with artists from other channels, but he is most of the time seen with his "crew".

The Crew



Julia is often thought of to be Tyler's girlfriend, and as much as the fans want it to be true, they are NOT together. But they do have magnificent chemistry together when performing. On her own, Julia has a powerful voice and makes every cover she sings her own. She also is very talented at songwriting. The originals that she has released have been mostly about relationships and they are written in a way that just about everyone can relate to. This is one of my favorites of hers, an original called "Far Away" ft Kevin Littlefield






Eppic is the rapper of the crew. In the covers he doesn't just rap the same thing as the original, but he often makes his own that fits perfectly into the song. He is passionate and serious about what he does, and he is great at it. Here he is performing his original song "Doubt" ft Julia Sheer.




Julia and Eppic are the two main people in Tyler Ward's "crew" but often other talented artists will join him to create many masterpieces. Their videos are well produced and each cover song has its own Tyler Ward and Crew twist to it, and in every video they make it fun, you can't help but smile. I know that Tyler Ward and all the artists that are a part of his crew have the talent to make it big and I hope the best for them. To end it, here is a fun one of theirs which is a cover of Far East Movement's "Like A G6"








Dont forget to subscribe to each of their channels!

www.youtube.com/user/TylerWardMusic
www.youtube.com/user/JuliaSheer
www.youtube.com/user/EppicTV


Also please become a fan of the Iokua Promotions Facebook Page! And follow on Twitter! Thanks for reading!