![]() ![]() In November, Tegan Marie was by far the youngest performer at a Washington, D.C., concert celebrating Smokey Robinson’s Gershwin Prize before an audience of political dignitaries. (Her team says about $20,000 was generated for Hurley Children's Clinic.) women’s soccer team, and hit “Good Morning America” to sing “Lucky Me,” her single released to raise funds for Flint water-crisis relief. That’s when it all began to truly pop. In 2016, Tegan landed a series of opening dates with country star Hunter Hayes, did a duet with Kelsea Ballerini, performed the national anthem at the Olympic send-off game for the U.S. You’re so good, you're gonna make it.’ So I never gave up.”īy age 12, her success on the site, along with mushrooming numbers on YouTube and Facebook, led to a management deal with Sweety High, run by music-industry veteran Veronica Zelle. “As soon as I joined Sweety High, I started getting fans,” Tegan says. Tegan's videos became a regular attraction for the site's other young members. ![]() By age 7 her dad was posting her homemade covers of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber songs to the entertainment and lifestyle site Sweety High, launched in 2011 with an eye to the coming Gen Z wave and described by its founder as a place where “girls can upload their content in a protective space.” Raised in a Flint household filled with country and Motown music, Tegan was singing as a toddler. They've grown up knowing that one typed search term can open the door to seemingly limitless musical universes. They've never had a musical life where choice is limited by what the radio fed you, what a friend loaned you, what a record-store clerk advised you to buy. Social media is second nature, streaming music is a given, and the ability to interact online with their favorite artists is a demand. Like her Gen Z peers, Tegan Marie is part of the cohort dubbed “digital natives” - kids who have known nothing but an Internet world. View Gallery: Photos: Tegan Marie goes for teen music gold as Gen Z makes its stand population, and as they pour into their tween and teen years, they constitute the most massive, wealthy and technologically savvy generation in American history, expected to wield $260 billion in buying power by 2020. At 80 million strong, they make up a quarter of the U.S. tour date of Jacob Sartorius, the 14-year-old viral star who was Google’s ninth most-searched music act last year.Ĭhalk it up to the growing power of Generation Z, the label attached to the demographic born since the late ‘90s - the children of Gen X and the group that follows the millennials. 28, Royal Oak Music Theatre will host the first U.S. Having caught attention via social platforms and video-sharing sites, the new teen contenders are already flooding in, from Australian singer Grace to new RCA Records artist Daniel Skye, from YouTube stars Taylor Girlz to the Beyoncé-signed Chloe X Halle. But the Flint native, who recently partnered with Radio Disney Country and is on the cusp of a major-label deal, is part of an emerging tsunami of young talent and fluid trends as the music industry gears up for its next blockbuster era. Long-term showbiz success is never guaranteed, of course, and much work lies ahead. ![]() Or maybe she’s already further along the path: Take Tegan Marie, a 13-year-old Michigan country singer whose precocious presence and fast-maturing vocals have earned her more than 50 million listens online in the past six months - including a viral cover of Florida Georgia Line’s “H.O.L.Y.” that has racked up more than 17 million. ![]() But it’s safe to say that at this very moment, somewhere in the world, the superstar of the future is a little-known kid quietly amassing Facebook likes or building views in some corner of YouTube. Pop music predictions are always risky business. Watch Video: Get to know rising singer and Flint native, Tegan Marie ![]()
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