Hard work and a little luck may get you noticed in the entertainment industry. CalArts alumna Bianca Marrero (Theater BFA 10) was recently featured in a Lady Gaga / Google Chrome commercial.
Marrero, whose stage name is Bianca Gisselle, is a songwriter who showcases much of her work online. She discovered that uploading covers of other people’s songs resulted in more hits on YouTube, which was a good way to promote her original music.
When Lady Gaga released her single Edge of Glory on YouTube on May 9, Marrero took a liking to the song immediately. “I thought it was a cool pop song and that it would translate well to guitar,” says Marrero, “So, I recorded a video a couple of hours later and uploaded it to my YouTube channel.”
A few days later, Marrero received an email from a man claiming to be part of Lady Gaga’s team who was putting together a “confidential video” and that he wanted to incorporate Marrero’s YouTube cover video.
On May 21, an ad for Google Chrome aired featuring Lady Gaga and a short snippet of Marrero’s cover. See the commercial below (Marrero appears at 0:16):
“I don’t have a TV, but the next day, I received a lot of messages from my friends and family who saw me in the ad during Saturday Night Live, the American Music Awards and other national shows,” says Marrero. She later found the ad on YouTube.
Marrero has not heard from Gaga’s people since May, but the commercial has brought her YouTube channel a lot more traffic: Her videos have drawn almost 700,000 hits.
“It was a huge compliment to me that Lady Gaga actually chose my video,” says Marrero. “I really appreciate the opportunity.”
– Additional reporting by Stephanie Smith/24700