Maria Aragon

Maria Lourdes Aragon (born July 17, 2000)[1] is a Canadian singer of Filipino descent. Aragon gained fame after a YouTube video of her performing Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" went viral.[2]

Maria Aragon
Aragon with Lady Gaga in 2011
Born
Maria Lourdes Aragon

(2000-07-17) July 17, 2000
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
NationalityCanadian–Filipino
OccupationMusician, singer-songwriter
Years active2008–present
Musical career
GenresPop, dance, teen pop, rock
InstrumentsVocals, piano, guitar
LabelsStar Records (2011)
Associated actsLady Gaga, Jessie J

Early life

Maria Lourdes Aragon was born on July 17, 2000 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Aragon has an older sister, Rojuane Aragon. At a young age, Maria had a big interest in singing, where she had posted covers on her sister's channel, rojuanearagon.

Career

2011: Career beginnings, The Monster Ball Tour with Lady Gaga and Maria Aragon

On February 16, 2011, a video of Aragon performing a cover of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga was posted to her sister's YouTube channel to showcase her talent to friends and family. The video caught Lady Gaga's attention when entertainment blogger Perez Hilton sent Gaga her "Born This Way" cover, and she was so impressed by Aragon's performance that she retweeted a link to the video.[3] In a week, her video reached over 11 million views. As of October 2015, the video had over 58 million views.

Lady Gaga and Aragon performing during The Monster Ball Tour, in 2011

During an interview on HOT 103 in Winnipeg, Lady Gaga called into the show to tell Aragon how moved she had been by her performance. Lady Gaga then invited an already surprised Aragon to perform "Born This Way" with her at The Monster Ball Tour concert in Toronto. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 99.9 Virgin Radio called Aragon and offered to fly her to Toronto for free. On March 3, 2011, Aragon joined Lady Gaga on stage at the Air Canada Centre, where they performed an acoustic duet of "Born This Way" with Aragon sitting on Gaga's lap, playing piano, singing and Lady Gaga working the pedals. Aragon later rejoined Lady Gaga and her team of back up dancers for an uptempo finale version of "Born This Way".[4]

American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres took notice of her from emails and petitions requesting for Aragon's appearance on the show and eventually invited Aragon to appear on her show on February 21, 2011, where Aragon again performed "Born This Way" on the piano earning a standing ovation from the audience. On March 29, 2011, Aragon performed "Born This Way" at her home for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She and Harper also performed a duet of John Lennon's song "Imagine".

In 2011, she appeared in commercials for HTC singing the K'naan song, Wavin' Flag[5] and Gap Kids, singing "I Want Candy". She performed at the 2011 Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill, which included Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge respectively, in attendance, as part of their 2011 royal tour of Canada.[6]

On July 20, 2011, Aragon arrived in the Philippines where she signed a contract with Star Records, the same recording company who also signed Charice.[1] Her first self-titled album consist of seven tracks[7] including "You're My Home", composed and originally sung by Odette Quesada and remade by Lea Salonga for the Star Cinema film, Way Back Home.[8] Among the songs in Aragon's album is her rendition of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way", which brought her international exposure.[9] To promote the album, she appeared on several ABS CBN shows including the musical variety show, ASAP Rocks and series of mall shows.[10]

2012–present: Further singing and #SoulfulSessions

In 2012, Aragon filmed and released a video entitled, "Rehearsals for Google Zeitgeist London 2012". The video shows Aragon rehearsing for the Google Zeitgeist London, hence the title. Later, Aragon was a featured artist in Liona Boyd's Christmas single entitled, "My Special Christmas Present Is You", which was released on December 11, 2012, following the video's release on December 7, 2012. Then later, Aragon released a cover mashup of Alex Clare's "Too Close" and Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me".

In 2013, Aragon returned covering her favorite Disney songs, featuring her friend, Ashly Pascual and her brother, JV Aragon which was released on. Later, Aragon's cover of "Clarity" by Zedd ft. Foxes, was released September 23, 2013. Aragon started a session entitled, #SoulfulSessions, where she covers various songs by various artists. Aragon's first session was released on November 4, 2013, where she covered "All of Me" by John Legend. Following the first session, Aragon released an original single entitled, "You Are Enough". Then, Aragon released sessions for "Royals" and "Roar".

Filmography
List of television performances
Year Title Role Notes
2011 The Ellen DeGeneres Show Herself Guest performer, NBC
ASAP 20 Guest performer, ABS-CBN
Eat Bulaga! Guest performer, GMA Network

Discography
  • Maria Aragon (2011)
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References
  1. Filipino-Canadian YouTube sensation Maria Aragon arrives in Manila Archived February 22, 2019, at the Wayback Machine accessed July 21, 2011 via PEP.ph
  2. Filipino-Canadian Maria Lourdes Aragon sings Lady Gaga song on YouTube and becomes overnight sensation Archived August 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine accessed on February 27, 2011 via PEP.ph
  3. Wiebe, Lindsay (February 19, 2010). "Pop queen goes Gaga over Winnipeg girl's voice". Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
  4. Maria Aragon performs with Lady Gaga at the singer's concert in Toronto accessed March 4, 2011 via PEP.ph
  5. YouTube sensation Maria Arago seen on commercial Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Canada Day show includes Winnipeg YouTube girl". The Canadian Press. Toronto ON. The Canadian Press. June 9, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  7. "Music: Maria Aragon Releases Self-Titled Album". September 3, 2011.
  8. Maria Aragon to sing the Way Back Home theme song accessed in July 25, 2011 via www.starcinema.com.ph
  9. Ginger Conejero (July 26, 2011). "Maria Aragon records her first album". ABS-CBN News.
  10. Napoleon Quintos (August 26, 2011). "Maria Aragon dedicates her debut album to her Filipino fans". ABS-CBN Entertainment News.
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