Watch: Adorable Little Girl Sings Elvis' 'Can't Help Falling in Love' and Plays Ukulele
Plenty of little girls enjoy the chance to belt out a good Disney tune while strumming randomly on a guitar, but 5-year-old Claire Crosby is not your average little girl.
Even at her young age, Claire has a musical talent that has made her a little internet celebrity.
Claire, who lives in the Seattle area with her parents and younger siblings, has always loved to sing. One day, her dad decided to film a video of Claire singing, “Part of Your World,” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and posted the video online.
The video of sweet little Claire singing with her soft voice on pitch went viral and was viewed over 100 million times across social media.
Since her Little Mermaid days, Claire has appeared on “Little Big Shots” with Steve Harvey, made four appearances on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and accumulated nearly one billion video views online.
Claire’s proud father, Dave Crosby, has had to figure out how to balance his own work life with the delicate responsibility of managing Claire’s online presence.
In an interview with Geek Wire, Crosby, who left his corporate job to start his own company, talked about his background as a musician and Claire’s rise to internet fame.
“I thought, ‘This is awesome, I’m gonna start a YouTube channel with my daughter,’” Crosby said after filming that first video of Claire singing the Little Mermaid.
“Our first video goes viral. I just posted it on my Facebook wall and we had this crazy experience — she goes on some talk shows and all that stuff and basically our YouTube channel is born. From that it was just one experience after another.”
Keeping up with his corporate job while traveling with Claire became too much for Crosby, but he still wanted to be the provider for his family — not ride the financial wave of his daughter’s fame.
“What kind of dude wants to make a living off his 3-year-old and just bank on her to feed the family?” Crosby said. “It put me in such an awkward position where I couldn’t really hold a job but at the same time I couldn’t bring myself to take all this money from Claire because she’s the one that had earned it.”
So Crosby started his own technology company, Wyze, which offers low-cost camera products and affords Crosby the opportunity to work remotely.
In addition to singing, Claire is learning to play the ukulele, which fits her small frame perfectly and allows her to accompany herself.
Claire recently moved from Disney tunes to rock ‘n’ roll, covering “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” by Elvis Presley.
Her sweet little voice floats over the familiar melody while her perfectly timed chord changes are impressive for a 5-year-old.
Crosby said he is careful to focus on music that Claire wants to sing and does not push her into singing or filming anything in particular. The choice to continue singing and filming as she grows up will be Claire’s, though for now, it seems the little girl loves being an entertainer.
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