Video - Meet Austin Mahone – Social Media Genius or the Next Justin Bieber?

Have you ever heard of Austin Mahone?

I bet your kids have. And they either love him or hate him – but they have heard of him.

So, who is Austin Mahone? What’s his bio?

Mahone lives in San Antonia Texas and is a 15-year-old singer and musician known for looking like Justin Bieber and recording cover songs on YouTube.

So what? There are lots of kids uploading videos and singing covers these days right?

But Mahone and his fans are different.

His fans are known as Mahomies - and he has his own Blog, Facebook, YouTube, Dailybooth, Tumblr, Twitter, SoundCloud, Formspring, and Myspace accounts.

He records popular cover songs and posts them to YouTube and interacts with his fans on a daily basis and claims that Justin Bieber is his favorite artist.



And oh yea, Mahone LOOKS like Justin Bieber and his fans love him.

The thing that fascinates us about this young man is his savvy for working the social media to create a name for himself while building his own fan base from the ground up without a record label or marketing rep.

He has learned to do what many adults and big companies have failed to do – create a successful brand.

In addition to uploading covers he has hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans, dedicated fan sites, over 13 million YouTube views, and sells t-shirts, posters, wristbands, Stickers, and Necklaces.

This is the kind of interaction that defines social media.

His fans love him but he admits that he also has haters saying,

“Haterz don’t matter to me because they are just jealous and the hateful words that they say are garbage. That’s why I don't listen to hate. I am curious of what haterz have to say sometimes just because I'm a curious person. But their opinions of me don't matter to me, because I’m not trying to please them.

What is important are my fans. I love them so much and everything they do for me. Haterz can't hurt you unless you let them. And I just have one last thing to say.... Haterz gonna hate Mahomies gonna love.”

Austin’s success is a prime example of how social media can springboard you into fame, build a fan base, and possibly launch a music career if you’re good enough.

So how powerful can a homegrown fan base be to a young artist like Mahone?



One day last week his fans decided he should appear on the “Ellen Show” with Ellen DeGeneres, and in one magnificent push of social media network power trended the phrase “#MahoneOnEllen” on twitter for the day as a worldwide trending topic.

His fans also bombarded DeGeneres’s Twitter and Facebook account and called her studio’s switchboard requesting she book Austin as a guest.

Why is this significant?

Because it was Ellen DeGeneres and her “eleveneleven” record label that discovered 14-year-old Greyson Chance.

And with less effort than Austin, Greyson has been propelled into a celebrity status with his first album “Hold on ‘til the Night” due to release next week.

Related: Greyson Chance gives video tour of his home town - Video

That kind of power by your own fans is exactly what made Justin Bieber what he is today.

One thing that helps make Mahone a fan favorite is he covers songs that are popular in today’s young music culture ranging from Cody Simpson, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Ne-yo, Usher, Adele, Chris Brown, and Edwin McCain.



So take note big record labels.

The youth of today have developed the social media skills to find, fall in love, promote, and make famous the musical artists THEY want to see and listen to - not who YOU want them to listen to.

Not that there’s not any place for “big music”, but things are changing these days and kids have grown frustrated with the “business as usual” mentality shown by the music industry.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention”, and our kids are inventing a new way to communicate and enjoy their favorite artists and musicians.

We hope some of the adults out there are listening because these kids can teach us a thing or two about what makes them tick – and they are showing us what it is they want to listen to and who they want to fall in love with as a fan.

Time will tell if a shirtless Austin Mahone will become the next big teen idol or music sensation…

But shouldn’t we be listening to what they are trying to tell us?

Follow @InfoStar on Twitter

Meet Jeremy Jack Bieber – Justin’s Divorced Dad and Early Musical Influence

Most Beliebers know who Pattie Mallette is.

Most have at least heard of Jeremy Bieber.

But what do Justin Bieber’s fans really know about his real father – Jeremy?

Justin was born on March 1, 1994 to 18-year-old Pattie Mallette and Jeremy Jack Bieber in Stratford Ontario Canada.

Pattie was a very religious person and Jeremy was a hard living, rock and roll kind of person who cursed a lot. Their relationship and marriage quickly started to fall apart.

When Justin was only two years old, the two divorced and Patti raised Justin in Stratford while Jeremy moved to Winnipeg.

Justin says that while his parents were divorced, he was still able to see, and be with his dad because of the standard visitation rules of the divorce decree. The father/son relationship was strained at times but overall says he got along with his dad.


As Justin’s career exploded, Jeremy began to see him more often, and was been seen backstage at his Madison Square Garden concert, and at several of his “Never Say Never” movie premiers. In recent years their relationship has become more mature and they keep in touch by phone and email.

Justin says,

"I have a great relationship with my dad now. When I was younger, he taught me how to play some songs on the guitar. He's the one who got me into classic rock and then turned me on to stuff like Guns N' Roses and Metallica. He taught me how to drive too. He's cool.”

But their relationship has not always been a love fest.

During the early years after the divorce, Pattie, who is a devout Christian, felt Jeremy’s rock and roll lifestyle was not a good influence on Justin and tried to limit their time together.

Jeremy Bieber, much like Justin, is a self-taught musician and has played in several bands and tried to make a career out of music on multiple occasions.

After divorcing Pattie, Jeremy moved to Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada and married his current wife Erin Wagner. The couple has two children Jazmin who is 3-years-old and Jaxon who is 12 months old.

On a Manitoba website for active couples, Jeremy and Erin describe their marriage saying,

“We are a high energy couple, and are both very passionate about music. We have a wonderful family, and our children bring the most wonderful light into our lives. One of which has been sharing his musical talents to the world. We have the privilege of watching my son "Justin Bieber" take the world by storm and bring some interesting adventures into our lives. We both enjoy the gym, spending time as a family and find the joy in city life, and country living. We hope to grow old together, and continue to succeed in all aspects of life, the most important aspect being love”

Jeremy is also an avid Gym user. He has been interested in physical fitness and wrestling for years, and is even part owner of a fitness gym in Manitoba.

So where did this kidrauhl thing come from?

Anybody who has ever watched an original YouTube video that Justin uploaded when he was twelve knows the name kidrauhl.

Jeremy says,

“I got the name lordrauhl from a series of books I read written by Terry Goodkind where the main character was named Lord Rauhl. The books were Sword of Tears, Sword of Truth, Soul of Fire, and Wizards First Rule. There was an entire series of stories and I fell in love with the Lord Rauhl character. Justin setup his YouTube channel as kidrauhl since he was the son of Lord Ruahl. It was kind of an inside family joke.”

Another interesting bit of trivia is Jeremy’s tattoos. He has a ton, but one in particular will appeal to Justin’s fans – and that is the seagull tattoo. Both Justin and Jeremy have the same small tattoo above their left waistline.

Brian Byrne, the co-owner of the Son of a Gun Tattoo and Barbershop where Justin and his dad visited says,

"From what I can gather, several of the male Bieber family members actually have that same Jonathan Livingston seagull tattoo - his dad included. It’s kind of a rite of passage thing they do when a Bieber male turns 16. Justin had just turned 16 and he wanted the tattoo”.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a book about a young seagull learning how to fly and learning about life in the process and the book’s cover features the outline of a bird in flight that is identical to Justin and Jeremy’s tattoo.

So why don’t we see a lot of Jeremy Bieber in the press or in paparazzi photos?

A friend says,

“Jeremy and Pattie still have a somewhat uncomfortable relationship but they interact because of Justin and his two step-siblings. Jeremy wants Justin to know he supports everything he is doing, and that he is proud of him, but does not want to get in the way or interfere with anything he has accomplished”.

Friends say Jeremy is very outspoken and feels he could do more harm than good being in front of the Paparazzi cameras and does not want to jeopardize anything in Justin’s life or career.

InfoStar suspects that as Justin grows a bit older, his relationship with Jeremy will continue to grow, and the past will become a building block for their future.

See more stories and video about Justin Bieber on InfoStar

Follow InfoStar on Twitter

Watch Video of Justin Bieber family Pictures