Esmee Denters - VEntertainmentOnline.com

Esmee Denters Biography

Two years ago 22-year-old Esmee Denters was a waitress in Domino's Pancake House back home in Holland. All she had was a webcam and a dream of making music her life.

Born on September 28th 1988 in Arnhem, Nederlands she fell in love with her father's Stevie Wonder albums as a child. She was named after a character on a television show her mother loved and after school she enrolled at Han University of Applied Sciences to study for a Bachelor of Science Work. But she dropped out in her Freshman Year in February 2007.

At the age of 17-years-old she began posting videos of herself on You Tube singing her favourite hits by Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Pink and Natasha Bedingfield. She recorded them in the bedroom of her suburban home in Oosterbeek in the Netherlands.

"I had seen all the these videos of amateur singers and that gave me the idea," she said. "I was interested in what other people thought of my voice, My friends had told me they liked my singing but I was curious to get strangers' opinions because music was what I really wanted to do."

Viewers started to send her requests and she began posting several songs a week including some of the ones she had written herself, and within nine months she had 21 million views. She became number 1 most subscribed musician in the history of the video-sharing website.

American pop singer Justin Timberlake heard about this singer who was racking up so many hits and was determined to seek her out. Six months after she began posting the videos, they met and he loved her silky, soulful voice, natural charisma and song writing talent.

He signed her to his fledgling label Tennman Records, in association with Interscope Records which he set up to find new talent, and in May 2009 her debut album "Outta Here" was exclusively produced by Timberlake. It featured songs co-written by Denters and Timberlake and it reached Number 5 in Holland, 55 in the Flemish Region albums chart and 48 in the UK.

Esmee Denters was the first artist to be signed to his label and he said she made him feel old when she told him she grew up watching his videos and wanted to be just like him.

Denters took some time to take in what had happened to her and said "It's an honour to meet him and have him produce my songs and write with him as well as giving me his attention as an artist."

"It is a strange way to become a recording artist but I am happy it happened that way and I am now on my way."

Between July and December 2009 she went on a World Tour to promote her first album and she gave a free show at Bloomingdales in New York in 2010 to promote her debut single and the campaign "Get Breast Cancer Outta Here" to create awareness of breast cancer. The show also raised money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and she performed "Outta Here" Just Can't Have it" and her American debut single "Love Dealer"

She is now working on her second album which is due to be released in January 2011 and she spends a lot time in America. She says "The difference is probably Holland is such a small country compared to America."

"What I really like about America is that everybody is so focused and driven, just like me. In Holland people are a bit more laid back and more family oriented. So I think that if you take a little bit of both worlds it would be the perfect combo."

"The fashion and music are pretty similar since Holland is influenced by American culture. I do like all the little vintage shops that you can find in Amsterdam."