From the Promoter

Occasionally, a talent descends upon planet pop whose arrival is utterly meteoric; Conor Maynard’s collision into the UK consciousness has been just such an incredible impact, with ripples emanating around the globe.

Making his name online with captivating cover versions of Usher, Drake and the Kings of Leon, Conor’s innate ability to make other people’s tracks his own saw his online stats spiral stratospherically. Now counting 90 million combined YouTube views, nearly 300,000 Twitter followers and 400,000 Facebook Likes, Conor was also the winner of MTV’s fan-voted Brand New for 2012 in January.

All this is a result of Conor’s distinctive musical merit alongside his naturally appealing personality. So it is no wonder that both Ne-Yo and Pharrell Williams showed interest in signing the Brighton teen and with those ambitions thwarted have opted to work with him.

Ne-Yo has been a long-time fan of Conor Maynard; two years ago, the R&B superstar happened upon his cover of Beautiful Monster and invited him to a Mayfair hotel for a meeting. Though he decided not to sign with Ne-Yo, it got the ball rolling and before long Conor had most of the music industry at his door. “I signed to Parlophone/ EMI for the same reason that I signed to my management; I got on well with the team,” he explains. “That was so important to me, to be happy with the people I’m surrounded by.”

Starting life as an actor (Dream Team series 9 fact fans), Conor Maynard switched to singing in his mid-teens; hearing Conor messing about with his mates in the street, a girl at his school begged him to come and sing to the rest of her friends. It got him thinking that maybe other people would want to hear him too.

“I used to sellotape two Singstar microphones together and then sellotape them to my bedpost, that’s how I first started recording covers,” he grins of his humble beginnings as a 15 year-old. From there, he began uploading videos of covers to YouTube. “Initially they were watched by literally three people, basically my Mum and my Nan!”

As Conor began to step up the production levels, putting visuals to the vocals, more and more people started paying attention. He also put his own spin on proceedings; switching up the melodies, adding his own lyrics and stripping back whole instrumentals to the bare bones. “I think people started respecting me as an artist; they wanted to hear me covering a song because they became a fan of me, rather than the song I was covering.”

His behind-the-scenes specials, The Conorcles, showed Conor’s willingness to put his personality online; his keen sense of humour attracting fans to his off-the-cuff wit and innate likeability. Here was an artist with enviable talent but also an everyman manner. Someone who you want to see play live and then hang out with after the show.

With his already impressive digital statistics continuing to sky-rocket, Conor Maynard is set to become one of pop’s hottest picks. After winning 48% of votes in MTV Brand New (beating Lana Del Ray in the process), he has since played at the Royal Albert Hall and the Capital Summertime Ball at a packed Wembley Stadium, performed in Canada for Richard Branson for the inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight to Vancouver. While in Canada, Conor had to move hotels five times to escape the hoards of teenage fans trying to get a glimpse.

So while an awful lot has already been crossed off Conor’s To-Do list, he’s far from complacent. “Everything that has happened so far has been amazing, but I’m not about to take my eye off the ball. Right now I’m getting ready for the next step because I don’t want to trip myself up. This is the most exciting thing to happen to me, and I don’t want it to stop.”

Promoter