Taylor Boardman has become a global music sensation with over 20 million albums sold in just 2 months. He began posting covers on YouTube as a teenager and gained over 1 million subscribers before being signed by Sony Records. While some criticize comparisons to Justin Bieber, Taylor says he just wants fans to listen before judging. He vowed to use his music success to help his mother who became ill before his fame. Though his father works in the music industry, Taylor insists he pursued music independently and his father only helped edit his music videos. Taylor announced a world tour will begin in September 2013.

1. Josh Robinson Double page spread
No Game, No Fame
Taylor Boardman’s latest hit ‘Whenever I SeeYou’ has made him a music sensation across
the globe, with over 20million copies sold in the space of 2 months and 4 Global Number 1s to his
name; he has risen to the heights of being one of the most well-known pop artists since Elvis Presley.
Here at Lyric magazine, we got an exclusive interview with the genius himself.
“I want a world tour” He announced valiantly during his performance at the Royal Variety
Performance. Of course everyone was shocked at how open he had decided to be... maybe it was
the new found fame? No, Taylor has been working on very small projects for YouTube in his early life
bringing out covers, similar to those of Justin Bieber and Esmee Denters, and one day he reached the
jackpot and was signed by the Sony Record Company, joining the small list of artists from YouTube to
Fame. We asked if he was surprised when he received the message from the head of Sony records,
“Of Course not, I knew I would become famous the second I heard myself sing...” (He Laughs) “Just
Kidding, I didn’t actually find the message until 2 weeks after it was sent, imagine the shock when I
saw it, I thought I had missed my chance HA!” Taylor has done the opposite of what most artists
have done and rejected a channel offer from VEVO, who are a big supplier of music on YouTube, “I
want my fans to see me as a person, not a GLORY HOG... I’m trying to keep my music as natural as
possible like before I became famous.” he explained, “It’s all for the fans!” YouTube however wasn’t
the first time he had sung to the world, when he was five appeared in a children’s choir at the Royal
Variety Performance of 2000, “I knew, even when I was five that I wanted to come here again but
SOLO... The purple lights were intoxicating, and the fact that I had my own performance there is just
surreal, you know?”
Various talent shows such as X Factor or The Voice are usually where people go to find fame,
but Taylor had something different in mind, hehad been on YouTube since the age of sixteen,it took
him two years to actually become noticed in the world, “It is such a Buzz, seeing a video of you
become so popular...Up to about three months before I got noticed, I had over one million
subscribers, fan pages, I just couldn’t stop smiling!”. Of course with a young artist like himself he is
sure to have a few fans, it comes with the bill... but his Twitter account has been subject to hate,
being compared to Justin Bieber, we asked him how he felt about this situation, “I find it very
annoying when people judge before they give something a chance” He notes, “I’m actually friends
with Justin, we used to talk a lot and try to promote each other’s channels, I’m just asking them to
listen before you judge, you might like what you hear”.
“I wasn’t the luckiest of kids when I was young, I didn’t live in a mansion, and I was bullied
occasionally...” (He Sniffles) “But I always had a very good relationship with my mum, and she is the
one that helped me through this rollercoaster that has been my YouTube life”. His mother became ill
six months before his fame, “I vowed that I would use the money I earned to help my mum get
better” We continued asking questions based on this subject, but he remained silent.
Some may say that Taylor was born into the music business (His father 55, has been a big
part of the music industry editing over 50 different music videos in his time)and maybe his father’s
inclusion in the industry was an influence in the process of making him become famous, but Taylor
couldn’t express his dislike for this theory, “I made it clear to my dad that I didn’t want his help to
get to the top, but he did offer, I have always been independent since I was a kid so my choice to try
and become famous was purely because I wanted to be, not because my dad’s in the business.”The
music videos for all of the songs in his most recent album ‘My Life’ were all edited by his father,
making it one of the first father/son partnerships in the music business.
He had the right to shout out at the Royal Variety Performance that he wanted a tour, and
what a way to get the ball rolling. When can the World Tour be expected? September 2013, so mark
your calendars because the recent sensation of the world will be coming to arenas near you (See
Pg.88)