The 14th of February is so overly-recognised as Valentines’ Day that other milestones, such as the anniversary of Youtube, are easily overlooked. Video channel Youtube was launched on 14 of February 2005, and has since, to a great extent, made the Internet what it is today.
On its 13th anniversary, The Malta Independent spoke to Malta’s top Youtuber ‘Grandayy’, who has been collecting thousands of subscribers since 2011, and who today, at the age of 23, works as a full-time Youtuber, despite graduating as a doctor last year.
Grandayy has two Youtube channels; Grandayy and Grande1899; the former being his main focus, on which he creates meme videos. (A meme is a video or an image which is humorous and is copied and shared by Internet users with mild variations to the post.)
“My memes mainly involve popular trends or memes edited for a comedic effect,” the Youtuber told this newspaper. “Sometimes it’s unexpected video edits, sometimes it’s musical mashups. There is quite a variety of videos but they all revolve around Internet memes.”
Grandayy made his first Youtube video in 2007, however he acknowledges a better start date would be four years later, in January 2011 using his Grande 1899 account. “I grew that channel to over 200,000 subscribers in around four years, by remaking popular songs in the video game Minecraft, using only note blocks in the game,” he explained.
He explained that the reason why he started making the videos was because he simply enjoyed the creation of them, along with his passion for video games.
“I love video games, especially ones that give you the freedom to do whatever you want,” he said. “I like experimenting with music, and I have always found Internet memes funny, so the content I create reflects my interests.”
In November of 2015 he started making his first meme videos, but, since they were different from the material which his Grande1899 channel hosted, he created a second channel called ‘Grandayy’.
“The first videos on Grandayy revolved aroung the ‘We Are Number One’ song from the show LazyTown, which was a very popular meme on Youtube at that time,” he said.
“In just a few months, the Grandayy channel grew so much that it quickly overtook my first channel and became my main channel.”
Grandayy sees his success and large following as a result of consistency and, he hopes, the quality of his videos.
“At this point Youtube is my full time job,” he said, “so that is now another reason why I keep making videos regularly. I still enjoy making them, which is what matters most.”
The Youtuber spends a lot of time on the computer daily, and dedicates much of it to brainstorming or editing videos. Twitter is another important tool for the Youtuber. “I spend a lot of time on Twitter, interacting with my fans and other Youtubers in the same community,” he said. In fact, many of his ideas are inspired from what he sees on Twitter or on the Internet.
“I have to know what is happening and what is trending on the Internet every day in order to do my job properly,” he said.
“Youtube has totally changed my life,” he said, when asked what impact Youtube has had on his life. “I just graduated as a medical doctor last November, but I chose to try out Youtube full-time, at least for now, and see how it goes from there.”
“I know most people would probably think it is a stupid decision, but I honestly enjoy this so much more. It is very nice being able to create whatever I want, and having a big audience that enjoys my work,” he concluded.