The pint-sized singing sensation that wowed Lady Gaga talks to Metro about what her life has been like since the defining moment when she stepped on stage with the superstar at a concert in Toronto. A few hints: she’s started piano lessons, she’s working on more cover songs and she’s been mobbed at a science fair. Learn more about Winnipeg’s Maria Aragon, age 10.
It takes a lot of guts to post videos of yourself singing for the whole world to hear. How did you even start doing that?
After my sister got her YouTube channel … we thought it would be fun if I was on YouTube, so we did it, and I got a little bit of exposure ‘cause I really like to sing. It’s fun. I’ve been posting videos on YouTube for about three years.
How do you learn a song?
On piano, I do it by ear, that’s how I did the video Price Tag and Born This Way. But Waving Flag, after everything happened, I got piano lessons from Academy of Music here in Winnipeg and my piano teacher helped me figure out Waving Flag by ear.
Wait. You’ve never had piano lessons?
I never had piano lessons ever before in my life. My brother … he played piano. On my seventh birthday, my sisters got me a piano, it was like one of those mini ones. And then my brother, he liked it more than I did, so he wrote his first song on that piano. And then we got this one for him (gesturing to the large keyboard in the Aragon living room). I wanted to play piano because he was so good at it and I wanted to learn piano … It was just watching him or listening to music and figuring it out.
OK. Explain the monkey thing to me. You take it everywhere.
After we taped (Good Morning America) we went shopping because, of course, it’s New York. We went around Times Square and we passed this M&M shop … and that’s where I found this monkey … and my cousin bought him for me, he was the one who introduced me to Born This Way.
What’s the monkey’s name?
His name is Monkey.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened since this whole thing started?
I went to regionals for science fair just the other day … people were looking around, they started to recognize me, people started to follow me, and I told my friends ‘Help, help, people are following me!’ The crowd got bigger, all through the gym, and the next thing we knew it was picture-taking time.
Did you win anything?
I wasn’t there for the awards ceremony, but my friend told me we got silver. (The experiment) was on how safe drinking water was.
