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Keenan cahill conquers the internet
Fri, 1st Apr 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Keenan Cahill has got to be 2011’s most unlikely star. The 15-year-old with the strange manner, unique appearance and eccentric act - lip synching to popular songs on YouTube – is currently taking the online world by storm.While lip synching to songs on the internet is certainly nothing new, young Keenan Cahill, known on YouTube as ‘BeenerKeeKee19952’, has become an internet sensation, garnering tens of millions of views and attracting genuine star-power to his oddball online act.While it appeared he devoted little time to learning the actual lyrics to the songs he mimes, his enthusiasm for his craft, not to mention his ad-libbed dance moves and passionate facial expressions saw him gain a dedicated, if small, internet following, with his channel receiving moderate hits since its inception in October of 2009.All that changed however, when his cover version of pop song ‘Teenage Dream’ came to the attention of its author, international pop superstar Katy Perry. She tweeted:"THIS… is my Teenage Dream,” and later added a second tweet "I heart you @KeenanCahill”.The rest is internet history.The exposure from the much-Twitter-followed Perry saw Cahill’s view count soar and brought him to the attention of a legion of fans, including rapper 50 Cent, who went on to appear in one of Keenan’s videos. Appearances have followed on Chelsea Handler’s late night talk show Chelsea Lately (whom he referred to as a ‘cougar’) as well as numerous chat and news shows, and Keenan has become one of Google’s most popular trending items.All the while there has been much speculation about the cause of Cahill’s unusual appearance. In fact Cahill suffers from a rare genetic condition known as Maroteaux–Lamy syndrome (MPS VI), a lysosomal storage disorder, which stunts growth and results in physical disabilities and an altered appearance.That fact has hardly slowed him down, however, as the latest king of lip-synching also appears to be a media-savvy and hugely successful self-promoter. (You can contact his manager through a link on his YouTube channel).As of writing this, just one of his YouTube channels (he has several) has received more than 20,000,000 views and currently boasts over 300,000 subscribers. Not bad work for a 15-year- old with nothing but a web-cam and bubblegum pop music.