Marie Digby is one impatient girl. Twenty minutes after first learning Rhianna's hit single, "Umbrella," last May, she propped her MacBook in her living room, filmed herself performing the song and put it on the Web. As fast as you can say "viral video," Marié's performance racked up more than 500,000 views on YouTube and landed her a national TV appearance on "Last Call with Carson Daly" and placement on the season premier of "The Hills."

As the YouTube clip caught on, Marié and producer Mike Daly entered the studio in June to record "Umbrella," along with a cover of Linkin Park's "What I've Done" and two Digby originals, "Stupid for You" and "Unfold" (the title track of her upcoming debut CD). Meanwhile, L.A. radio station STAR 98.7 jumped all over "Umbrella" this summer, placing the track in heavy rotation and setting the stage for a wider national exposure to come.

This all might seem like overnight success for Marié, but that's never how it goes in real life. For years, the 24-year-old L.A. native has worked diligently to break through, counting on talent and perseverance to carry the day. "When I put up those YouTube videos I had no idea of people would react to them," says Marié. "What's working for me is the stance I put on my songs. People feel like they know me."

The daughter of a Japanese mother and Irish-American father, Marié (pronounced Mar-ee-AY) began piano lessons as a toddler. By her teens she had picked up the guitar and started writing songs, inspired by favorite artists like Martin Sexton, Beth Orton and Poe. Soon enough, the coffee house circuit beckoned.

Midway through her freshman year at U.C. Berkeley, Marié came to a realization. "I felt totally incomplete because I knew music was what I wanted to do," she recalls. "I was coming home every other weekend to play shows, and I decided I couldn't do both at the same time. I put everything I had into music. I had this conviction that if I believed this was what I wanted more than anything, it would happen."

She put college on hold and started playing every open mic gig in L.A., from Chicano bars to retirement homes, anyplace, as she puts it, "that allowed nobody singers." She finally landed a gig at L.A.'s famed Rainbow Bar and Grill. Even though the electricity went out midway through her first set, Marié was ecstatic. From then on, she upgraded to more prestigious clubs, perfecting her performing and songwriting.

Visit our AudioStreet.net profile page and listen to our music:
http://www.audiostreet.net/mariedigby