Months after young Winnipeg songstress Maria Aragon shot to fame on the wings of a YouTube cover of a Lady Gaga song, the 11-year-old has landed a big two-album record deal in the Philippines.
Aragon has sung with Lady Gaga and performed before Prince William and Kate, so she's had some big brushes with fame, but in her parents' home country of the Philippines, she's a superstar.
Last week, she did the talk-show circuit in the Philippines, appearing on entertainment shows with the country's biggest stars.
Star Records, a big label in the Philippines, has signed Aragon to a two-year, two-record deal. Her father, Veni Aragon, says he will know the exact worth of the deal when he flies there at the end of the month.
Aragon has developed a rabid fan base in the southeastern Asian country, a country that counts 40 million teenagers among its population.
"It's just a really big opportunity and I feel so blessed," she said in an interview in the country.
According to Hua Lee, a music producer, the deal probably isn't worth a lot in comparison to a record deal in the West. However, Asia's massive growing market could make her popularity too much to ignore.
"If they do the right songs for her, perhaps if they even do covers of the right songs, it could all eventually come back to the West," he told CTV News.
But the reality is, after Aragon finishes up her album and a song for a Philippine movie, she's back to being a normal Canadian kid.
She starts Grade 6 in September.
Meanwhile, the "hits" keep coming. Aragon's cover of Gaga's "Born this Way" has reached nearly 40 million hits on YouTube.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Jill Macyshon
