Rabbitholed #61: Ellen, The Former Child Star Greyson Chance and a Very Special “They Don’t Call it ‘Show Friends’” Teachable Moment

"I've never met someone more manipulative...self-centered and...blatantly opportunistic," the 25-year-old zeroed in on just a few qualities Ellen possesses that resulted in her extensive success.

“This is a strange story because on one hand fuck Ellen DeGeneres but on the other hand this reads like every pop artist’s relationship with their label,” one Reddit user noted. “This story is coasting off of the backlash, there’s not much here. Good for him I guess because he’s clearly got a new team and they’re working to revive his career.”

Today’s Rabbithole:

Sometimes music and moments just give you chills.

Such is the case with a shaky-camera-captured (we shouldn’t even be watching this!) middle-school student’s angst-filled piano cover of a Lady Gaga song in 2010 to a stunned auditorium that led to a 12-year-old becoming an overnight viral sensation, getting booked on national TV, talking to his idol Gaga on live TV and getting signed by a record label the talk show host created for the very purpose of catapulting this young singer’s career into outer space.

It wasn’t done out of charity or even love of music, obviously. Only five years into YouTube’s existence, Ellen no doubt shrewdly extrapolated the astronomical amount of money that could be made in nabbing the next Bieber before Scooter Braun ever could.

However, despite even a young Ariana Grande appearing in one of his early videos—“Unfriend You”—Chance still didn’t end up making it anywhere on a scale like Bieber did. Instead, before too long, his record label dropped him.

But now, in 2022, the all-grown-up 25-year-old Greyson Chance is back in the national conversation in a big way.

Employing a cynical media move I would term “backlash riding,” now a battle-worn, gay sex symbol Chance reveals to Rolling Stone that Ellen was actually extremely manipulative and controlling. But also: that she abandoned him.

As it was in 2010 and so it is now, there’s one reason that millions—instead of thousands—are currently talking about him once again.

Ellen DeGeneres.

In 2010 it was because she made him. In 2022 it is because he is trying to break her.

And both times, this kid and his family is smart enough—just like Ellen was—to know money when he sees it.