And the winner
for best music video: ''Chocolate Rain.''
Tay Zonday
morphed from an unknown musician to an Internet superstar
who got booked on national TV shows after his song
''Chocolate Rain'' -- an amateur clip of his
baritone crooning -- went viral last year. Now he's
among the 12 winners of the second annual YouTube Video
Awards, recognizing the top user-created videos of
2007.
YouTube users
voted on six nominees for each category: music, sports,
comedy, instructional, short film, inspirational,
commentary, creative, politics, series, eyewitness,
and ''adorable.''
''It's the new
Emmys,'' Zonday, 25, said of the video-sharing site's
awards in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.
''It's the next Oscars. The next People's Choice
Awards. It'll be interesting to see what happens five
years, 10 years (from now).''
His competition
included comely singer-songwriter Mia Rose and ''the
vegetable orchestra,'' featuring a jam session with a carrot
flute and squash drum.
Neil Cicierega's
video featuring ''Harry Potter'' hand puppets (and
Professor Dumbledore without any clothes on) won for best
comedy video. Guillaume Reymond's ''Human Tetris'' won
most creative video.
Chris Crocker,
who shot to stardom in his video freak-out over Britney
Spears's public meltdown, was beat in the commentary
category by a clip from Michael Buckley of the popular
online show ''What the Buck?'' slamming fellow YouTube
celebrity Lonelygirl15.
The Obama Girl,
aka Amber Lee Ettinger, whose ''I Got A Crush On Obama''
clip has been seen more than 7 million times, didn't wind up
winning in the politics category. That honor went to
the serious-minded ''Stop the Clash of Civilizations''
video by the global organization avaaz.org.
''The (political)
video that actually won in an election year wasn't one
that had anything to do with the election itself,'' said
YouTube spokesman Aaron Ferstman. ''(It's a) video
that deals with ... serious issues like
discrimination, and that video's done in kind of a neat way
that speaks to young people.''
Best eyewitness
video was the epic ''Battle at Kruger,'' which has drawn
more than 26 million views to its astonishing footage of a
baby water buffalo surviving an attack by lions -- and
a crocodile! -- in the African prairie. It was up
against the news-making clip of a University of
Florida student pleading ''Don't tase me, bro!'' as police
removed him from a John Kerry forum.
Ben Shelton's
''My Name Is Lisa'' -- a drama about a young girl and her
mother who has Alzheimer's -- triumphed in the newly added
short film category. The winning Web series was ''The
Guild,'' a comedy about a group of obsessed online
gamers.
The Texas
Country Reporter's video about a blind painter won
most inspirational video. The ''Balloon Bowl'' clip of
a guy skateboarding in, well, a balloon-filled bowl
snagged best sports video. And the incredibly cute,
compulsively watchable ''Laughing Baby'' clip was voted most
adorable.
Dan Brown's video
''How to Solve a Rubik's Cube (Part One)'' scored in
the instructional category.
Ferstman said the
prizes consist of ''notoriety'' and a trophy he
described as ''very heavy with a metal base'' supporting a
''big glass play button.''
Ferstman said:
''These are the (videos) that really will stand out and
over time -- you know, hey, do you remember the
'Laughing Baby'?''
Zonday, who
streams music from his YouTube channel, MySpace page, and
personal website, said he hopes to earn ''a living making
art and producing music,'' and is pursuing a
voice-over career. He's flattered by the numerous
online parodies of ''Chocolate Rain,'' which has garnered
nearly 16 million views.
''A lot of people
see political commentary in (the song),'' he said. ''A
lot of people find humor in it. A lot of people, they say
their 2-year-olds can't stop repeating it at bedtime,
so a lot of people get different things out of
the song. And I think the greatest consequence and the
greatest mileage it can have is to get people asking
questions.''
What's the key to
YouTube success?
''Just be very
authentic and put yourself out there,'' he said in his
mellifluous voice. ''You'll never know what will happen.''
(AP)