User talk:IvanMcCrough

Ivan McCrough (born, 3rd September 1993) is an English/American pop singer/songwriter. McCrough was discovered in 2009 by Steven McAffie who happened across several of McCrough's YouTube videos and later became his manager. McAffie arranged to meet McCrough in Los Angeles, USA and McCrough was signed to Hollywood Records after he was highly recommended by McAffie but the contract didn't work out and a month later, McCrough was resigned to EMI records USA whom McAffie worked for.

His debut single "Curses" was released June 2010, and topped the charts in several European countries. It was followed by his debut album "Curses" mid August 2010, which was certified Platinum in the States, at the time McCrough became the Most Promising Young Artist of The Month and four of his singles released from "Curses" went on to be highly successful in the Billboard Top 100.

EARLY LIFE: McCrough was born 3rd September 1993 in Liverpool, England but moved around a lot as a child, he moved to London aged 10, Los Angeles aged 12 and New York City aged 17. His mother unsuccessful Broadway singer Angeline McCrough was 34 when she became pregnant with her son and raised him with assistance from her husband the late Michael McCrough. McCrough was much closer to his father whilst growing up so Michael McCrough's death in 2005 was a very traumatic experience for 12 year old McCrough who dealt with his father's death after 6 months of life in LA. McCrough was an aspirational writer as a child but turned to singing aged 15 and learnt to play guitar and bass aged 14. McCrough entered a local talent contest aged 16, he sang The Beatles' "Hey Jude" and ranked in second place but despite his success, McCrough didn't enter any other talent contests due to depression. One of McCrough's friends introduced him to video upload website YouTube in 2007, McCrough posted a video of him singing a Madonna cover and the video was such a success it became a regular thing for McCrough who soon became famous via YouTube. McCrough continued to post videos of him covering popular classics and some of his own material and soon his channel became successful.

CAREER: 2009 - DISCOVERY While searching for a different type of singer, Michael McAffie, an executive producer for EMI records USA, stumbled across one of McCrough's YouTube videos, a cover of Madonna's "Like A Virgin". McAffie was impressed by McCrough's talent and contacted Angeline McCrough. Angeline McCrough refused to hand her son over to EMI records USA at first but after McCrough admitted he was interested in the contract, she allowed a 16 year old McCrough to become property of EMI records USA and McCrough headed to Hollywood Records HQ to record some demo tracks including his hit debut single "Curses". McCrough sang live for President Barack Obama and the President liked him instantly and thought the song was amazing considering it was written by a 16 year old boy with very little experience. After the demo tracks were rejected, McCrough was dumped by his record company and fell back on a contract with EMI records USA. McCrough and his mother moved to the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, USA with their dog Lovelace so McCrough could focus on his career and McAffie became McCrough's manager and introduced him to McCrough's agent Sam.

2010 - "CURSES" McCrough's debut single "Curses" was released in June 2010 as McCrough started working on his debut album. The song eventually reached number 6 on the Billboard Top 100. The song was certified platinum in the USA and France and gold in Germany and Italy. McCrough's hit debut album "Curses" also included hit singles "First Encounter", "Middle Of The Night" and "Used To Be" which helped the album achieve multi-platinum in several European countries and win several other awards. To promote the album, McCrough toured the USA, England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. McCrough also guest starred in an episode of Bam! The critically aclaimed American family comedy early 2010.

McCrough was a presenter at the CTV Awards 2010 which aired online and he was also invited to the Hotel For Dogs movie premiere and was accompanied by close infamous friends Andy, Ellie and his girlfriend Mercede and it was there he was introduced to semi-close celebrity friend Ashley Argota. McCrough also performed live at the final of the annual All Mixed Up Stars And Songs mini-clip show on YouTube, he sang "Russian Roulette" by Rihanna.

At the end of August 2010, McCrough released his second album "Imac" and the lead single from the new album "It Was You" charted at number 5 on the Billboard Top 100 and top 10 in several European countries. Both albums have been very successful and teenage magazine J-14 reviewed McCrough's latest album and said "Ivan McCrough's second album's full of cool collaborations and amazing songs, his lyrics are so sweet and he's set to become an international phenomenon!" To promote his second album, Ivan has had several signings in England, America and Canda as well as performing on teenage TV show Girlicious as a fame-obsessed college student who's really a celebrity in disguise.

2010 - NYU AND THIRD ALBUM:

McCrough applied for NYU (New York University) and got a place and on 11th November 2010, he'll become a sophomore at NYU during the time he releases his third album "Spots, Stripes And Stormy Nights". The lead single off the third album, "Baby, Girl" was released in advance so McCrough filmed a music video in Paris with Taylor Swift in which they got married, the video became the most viewed video on YouTube previously owned by Justin Bieber's "Baby" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance".

McCrough began recording his third album mid August and is set for release early October and McCrough has spilled details on the album on his blog and in interviews with teenage magazine BG (Being Girl) "the third album is going to be very extreme and a lot more mature and adult than the previous two so I'm excited about releasing it in October and working on it with other artists." Ivan has also signed a deal with book publishing company Harper Teen and will release his series of novels "Just Friends" in 2011.

IMAGE:

According to close friend of McCrough, Sadie Thom "part of McCrough's personality stems from his YouTube channel". Long before he released "Curses", in late July, McCrough already had millions of followers on his now deleted YouTube channel but McCrough deleted the channel last month because it reminded him of all the times he was trying to become successful and now he is successful and it seemed ridiculous so he inactivated the account after holding a contest for the account which nobody won. McAffie shares of McCrough's YouTube channel when he was discovered a year ago "McCrough's videos were amazing, he had real potential and star quality but he was very humble and down to earth at the same time, he was born to be a star and I decided he deserved that opportunity to achieve his dreams". McCrough deleted his YouTube and Facebook accounts and created a blog on Blogger which he named Ivan McCrough and has been active for a month and contains 95 posts - almost 100! McCrough does have a YouTube account but the account name is top secret because McCrough says "as soon as I was signed and I released 'Curses' suddenly, everyone was watching my YouTube videos and whenever I logged in, I was mobbed by fans and that's not what I wanted so I saved all my videos to my computer and deleted the account. I do have a new YouTube account but I'm not revealing the account name in case the same thing happens again, it's too big a risk".

McAffie shares "McCrough is almost eighteen so he's still a kid and that makes him even more successful because he's still a teenager and he's easy to relate to and that's why so many kids like him, he's a new kind of singer/songwriter". But fame isn't all great, McCrough's regularly mobbed by fans whenever he leaves the house, he's surrounded by paparazzi all the time and his friends and family are hounded by the press desperate to know more about McCrough. His close friend Ellie shares "once an American newspaper paid me to tell them all about McCrough and I was so shocked, I didn't tell them anything or take the money because McCrough's a great friend and he deserves his privacy."

McCrough is often featured in teenage magazines and has been labelled a "teen heartthrob".

CROWD CONTROL PROBLEMS: McCrough's popularity has caused safety concerns so McCrough is given special treatment at Six Flags, Disney World and various other historical places, McCrough confesses "whilst in London, I was almost ran over by three cars and some teenage fans tried to kill me and apologised by giving me free 'I love London' T-shirts, it sucked!"

DISCOGRAPHY: Main Article: Ivan McCrough discography "Curses" - July 2010 "Imac" - August 2010

TOURS: USA tour - June 2010 Worldwide tour - July 2010 London tour - August 2010

OPENING ACT: Decades tour (Sadie Thom) - June 2010

FILMOGRAPHY: Girlicious All Mixed Up Stars And Songs Bam!

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS: Most Promising Young Person Of The Month Multi-platinum albums Gold albums Multi-platinum singles