Corey Vidal
Encyclopedia
Corey Vidal is a Canadian online video content provider and digital media consultant. His YouTube videos have been seen over 50 million times, and he has over 175 videos, as of March 2011. He is ranked as one of Canada's "Most Viewed" Partners and "Most Subscribed" users of all time, and ranks in the top 300 YouTube channels worldwide. He is also Canada's "#2 Most Subscribed Guru". His YouTube channel profile has been viewed over 7 million times. In December 2007, Vidal was one of the first Canadians to join the YouTube Partnership Program. Vidal has over 200,000 subscribers.
. His popularity stemmed from the success of one of his first videos, How To Dance: "1, 2 Step" by Ciara ft. Missy Elliot (uploaded to YouTube
on September 3, 2006), where he teaches dance steps to R&B singer Ciara
's popular music video 1, 2 Step
. This video is the #1 Most Viewed (All Time) and #1 Top Favorited (All Time) video for a Canadian in the "Howto & Style" category. It currently has over 5 million views.
Following his How To Dance series, Vidal branched into other types of videos. His channel career spans dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, beatboxing
, acting in short films (including a major short film production by Niagara College
), solving Rubik's Cube
s, video blogging, and collaborating with other YouTubers. Microsoft Canada
has contributed to one of Corey's videos, and MTV Europe
contacted him to produce an exclusive video to appear in their televised series MTV's Best.Show.Ever in 2007. In December 2008, Corey produced a 4-part a cappella Christmas e-card for California-based consulting firm Barbary Coast Consulting. In May 2009, Vidal released a 33-part interactive choose-your-own-adventure
-style video as part of a collaboration with Blendtec, the company behind Will It Blend?
. He is working on a 14-part television commercial project with Moosebutter
and NBC Universal.
Vidal first gained national Canadian media attention in the summer of 2008 when he was announced as the host of the 888 YouTube Gathering that took place August 8, 2008 in Toronto
, Canada
. Corey hosted a one-hour show featuring many of YouTube's most popular "cewebrities", including KevJumba, HappySlip, Dave Days, Charles Trippy, Shay Carl, Philip DeFranco
, and more.
. The video was featured on YouTube Canada's homepage on November 3, 2008, and then again on the Worldwide homepage three days later. It appeared on the homepage of MSN.com, and was featured by MSN Videos and StupidVideos.com. As of March 2011, the video has been viewed over 13 million times since its upload on October 27, 2008. The video quickly became Canada's #1 Top Rated (All Time) and #1 Top Favorited (All Time) Entertainment video, and now has many other All Time Honors both in Canada and Worldwide. It is also ranked as one of YouTube's Top 100 Rated videos of All Time.
On December 7, 2008 the video was nominated for a 35th Annual People's Choice Awards
on CBS
as "Favorite User Generated Video" of 2008. It faced competition in its category from other viral videos such as Barack Roll, Fred Goes Swimming
, Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
, and Wassup 2008
. Vidal attended the red carpet event in Los Angeles on January 7, 2009.
disputes between the content in his videos and copyrighted works owned by major studios and labels. To date, Vidal has fought and won every claim made against his videos.
in April 2008 over the use of Madonna's song 4 Minutes
in one of his hip hop dance videos. The video was removed from YouTube by Warner a month after it being uploaded, having received over 200,000 views. Vidal fought Warner with an official DMCA counter-claim, filed through YouTube's copyright system.
Two weeks after his claim was made, Madonna herself uploaded a video to her official YouTube channel titled Madonna's Message To YouTube saying "So all you people out there who are making videos to my single 4 Minutes, keep up the good work. Nice job, nice one, OK. But you got to clean up after yourself, alright?"
Vidal forwarded this video to YouTube's copyright department as well as Warner Music Group's legal team, and on May 9, 2008 his video was restored in full, with no penalties held against his account. Ironically, after a falling-out between YouTube and Warner Music Group in early 2009, Warner pulled down every video on YouTube that contained any of their material. This included a complete purging of Madonna's YouTube account and all her videos, including the official music video to 4 Minutes as well as Madonna's message to YouTube. However, because Vidal's claim had legally won in 2008, they were unable to remove his video. It currently has over 4 million views.
. His entire account and all of his videos were suspended, then returned three days later, however the a cappella video remained banned and unviewable. For over a month, the official video was unavailable on YouTube, but copies were spread around the Internet by other uploaders on YouTube and other media sites. On February 24, 2009 the original video returned after Vidal fought Warner's claim, citing the video as being protected under fair use
. The video was restored with its original views, ratings, and comments.
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! Year
! Nominated work
! Category
! Award
! Result
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| 2009
| Star Wars (John Williams Is The Man) A Cappella Tribute
| Favorite User Generated Video
| People's Choice Awards
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YouTube career
Vidal began on YouTube in mid-2006 by posting hip hop dance videos inspired by American dance reality television show So You Think You Can DanceSo You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
. His popularity stemmed from the success of one of his first videos, How To Dance: "1, 2 Step" by Ciara ft. Missy Elliot (uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on September 3, 2006), where he teaches dance steps to R&B singer Ciara
Ciara
Ciara Princess Harris , known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she traveled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer, Jazze Pha...
's popular music video 1, 2 Step
1, 2 Step
"1, 2 Step" is a R&B/dance/hip hop song recorded by Ciara and Missy Elliott for Ciara's debut album Goodies . Written by Ciara and Missy Elliott and produced by Jazze Pha, it was released as the album's second single in October 2004 in the United States and the second quarter of 2005 ...
. This video is the #1 Most Viewed (All Time) and #1 Top Favorited (All Time) video for a Canadian in the "Howto & Style" category. It currently has over 5 million views.
Following his How To Dance series, Vidal branched into other types of videos. His channel career spans dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, beatboxing
Beatboxing
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments...
, acting in short films (including a major short film production by Niagara College
Niagara College
Niagara College is a College of Applied Arts and Technology within the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario. The College has four campuses: the Welland Campus in Welland, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Maid of the Mist Campus in Niagara Falls, home of the Tourism Industry...
), solving Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that...
s, video blogging, and collaborating with other YouTubers. Microsoft Canada
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
has contributed to one of Corey's videos, and MTV Europe
MTV Europe
MTV Europe is a pan-European 24-hour entertainment cable and digital television network launched on August 1, 1987. Initially, the channel served all regions within Europe being one of the very few channels that targeted the entire European continent...
contacted him to produce an exclusive video to appear in their televised series MTV's Best.Show.Ever in 2007. In December 2008, Corey produced a 4-part a cappella Christmas e-card for California-based consulting firm Barbary Coast Consulting. In May 2009, Vidal released a 33-part interactive choose-your-own-adventure
Choose Your Own Adventure
Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based on a...
-style video as part of a collaboration with Blendtec, the company behind Will It Blend?
Will It Blend?
Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender...
. He is working on a 14-part television commercial project with Moosebutter
Moosebutter
Moosebutter is a comedy a cappella group that started in Salt Lake City, UT, and has been based for most of its existence in Provo, Utah. The quartet has performed at venues spanning the United States, with most of their shows in the Rocky Mountain region, most notably Utah and Colorado...
and NBC Universal.
Vidal first gained national Canadian media attention in the summer of 2008 when he was announced as the host of the 888 YouTube Gathering that took place August 8, 2008 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Corey hosted a one-hour show featuring many of YouTube's most popular "cewebrities", including KevJumba, HappySlip, Dave Days, Charles Trippy, Shay Carl, Philip DeFranco
Philip DeFranco
Philip "Phil" DeFranco , also known as PhillyD or by one of his YouTube usernames "sxephil", is an American video blogger, YouTube celebrity and motivational speaker...
, and more.
Star Wars (John Williams Is The Man) A Cappella Tribute
A notable success is his most popular video, a Star Wars a cappella tribute to John Williams - a video of Vidal lip-syncing to a song written in 1999 and recorded in 2002 by a cappella comedy troupe MoosebutterMoosebutter
Moosebutter is a comedy a cappella group that started in Salt Lake City, UT, and has been based for most of its existence in Provo, Utah. The quartet has performed at venues spanning the United States, with most of their shows in the Rocky Mountain region, most notably Utah and Colorado...
. The video was featured on YouTube Canada's homepage on November 3, 2008, and then again on the Worldwide homepage three days later. It appeared on the homepage of MSN.com, and was featured by MSN Videos and StupidVideos.com. As of March 2011, the video has been viewed over 13 million times since its upload on October 27, 2008. The video quickly became Canada's #1 Top Rated (All Time) and #1 Top Favorited (All Time) Entertainment video, and now has many other All Time Honors both in Canada and Worldwide. It is also ranked as one of YouTube's Top 100 Rated videos of All Time.
On December 7, 2008 the video was nominated for a 35th Annual People's Choice Awards
35th People's Choice Awards
The 35th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2008, was held on January 7, 2009 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Queen Latifah in her third straight year as host, and was broadcast on CBS...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
as "Favorite User Generated Video" of 2008. It faced competition in its category from other viral videos such as Barack Roll, Fred Goes Swimming
Fred (YouTube)
Fred Figglehorn is a fictional character created and portrayed by American actor Lucas Cruikshank. Cruikshank, a teenager from Columbus, Nebraska, created the character for his channel on the video-sharing website YouTube...
, Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
Matt Harding
Matthew "Matt" Harding , is an American traveler, video game designer, and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations...
, and Wassup 2008
Whassup?
Whassup? was a commercial campaign for Anheuser-Busch Budweiser beer from 1999 to 2002. The first spot aired during Monday Night Football, December 20, 1999. The ad campaign was run worldwide and became a pop culture catchphrase...
. Vidal attended the red carpet event in Los Angeles on January 7, 2009.
Copyright disputes
Vidal is known on YouTube for his multiple Digital Millennium Copyright ActDigital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
disputes between the content in his videos and copyrighted works owned by major studios and labels. To date, Vidal has fought and won every claim made against his videos.
4 Minutes
The first claim came from Warner Music GroupWarner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
in April 2008 over the use of Madonna's song 4 Minutes
4 Minutes (Madonna song)
"4 Minutes" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her eleventh studio album Hard Candy. It was released as the lead single from the album on March 17, 2008, by Warner Bros. Records. The song's development was motivated by a sense of urgency to save the planet from destruction, and...
in one of his hip hop dance videos. The video was removed from YouTube by Warner a month after it being uploaded, having received over 200,000 views. Vidal fought Warner with an official DMCA counter-claim, filed through YouTube's copyright system.
Two weeks after his claim was made, Madonna herself uploaded a video to her official YouTube channel titled Madonna's Message To YouTube saying "So all you people out there who are making videos to my single 4 Minutes, keep up the good work. Nice job, nice one, OK. But you got to clean up after yourself, alright?"
Vidal forwarded this video to YouTube's copyright department as well as Warner Music Group's legal team, and on May 9, 2008 his video was restored in full, with no penalties held against his account. Ironically, after a falling-out between YouTube and Warner Music Group in early 2009, Warner pulled down every video on YouTube that contained any of their material. This included a complete purging of Madonna's YouTube account and all her videos, including the official music video to 4 Minutes as well as Madonna's message to YouTube. However, because Vidal's claim had legally won in 2008, they were unable to remove his video. It currently has over 4 million views.
John Williams/Star Wars A Cappella Tribute
In mid-January 2009, Vidal's Star Wars A Cappella video was removed from YouTube due to a DMCA copyright infringement claim by Warner Music GroupWarner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
. His entire account and all of his videos were suspended, then returned three days later, however the a cappella video remained banned and unviewable. For over a month, the official video was unavailable on YouTube, but copies were spread around the Internet by other uploaders on YouTube and other media sites. On February 24, 2009 the original video returned after Vidal fought Warner's claim, citing the video as being protected under fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
. The video was restored with its original views, ratings, and comments.
Awards and nominations
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! Year
! Nominated work
! Category
! Award
! Result
|-
| 2009
| Star Wars (John Williams Is The Man) A Cappella Tribute
| Favorite User Generated Video
| People's Choice Awards
People's Choice Awards
The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble and Survivor magnate Mark Burnett...
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