Gleeful

It's been tough, but I somehow struggled through the past few months since the close of Glee Season One. And now, just as January began to defeat me, Glee has triumphantly returned to our screens. And not a moment too soon.

But this post is not simply an excuse to get #Glee into the old keyword search (if I was in that game, I'd write about Justin Bieber's Facebook page). No, I want to write about their recent cast addition - Charice aka Sunshine.



It turns out Charice and her mind-blowing vocals came to the show via internet viral stardom. According to her Wikipedia page, young Charice notched up an impressive 13 million YouTube hits in 2007, winning her spots on Ellen, Good Morning America and even Oprah (I'm really clocking up those keywords!)

So why Glee? And why my fascination? Well, Glee more or less paved the way for "consume what you see TV" - as the songs rolled out, their iPhone toting, click-happy tween fanbase could immediately jump on iTunes and get downloading. And that almost inaudible sound in the background? That is the sound of easy money. Glee's previously unknown cast became Triple Threat cash machines overnight.

And when it came to gearing up for Season Two, what lessons had they learned?
1. Tweens love Glee
2. Tweens love the Internet
3. Tweens have the attention deficit capability to love both at the same time

The solution? Book the biggest thing on the Internet pronto. Sadly Beiber, Double Rainbow Guy and David had been lost to pre-pubescent anarchy, Microsoft and the dentist respectively. Charice (and her millions-strong fan base) it had to be. Genius. With her at the helm, and guest appearances from Britney and Gwyneth Paltrow this season is going to be a whole world of good.

Now, did I mention Bieber enough to get him in the tweet out for this post?