Merton is an American

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

musician and personality who first gained press attention in March 2010 after making videos of himself interacting with people he meets on

Chatroulette Chatroulette is an online chat website that pairs random users with a choice between two other users for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat (audio, and video) with another visitor. At any point, either user ...

and

Omegle Omegle is a free online chat website that allows users to socialize with others without the need to register. The service randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions where they chat anonymously using the names "You" and "Stranger" or "Stra ...

. In the videos, Merton sits at a piano and improvises songs about either his observations of the people he is meeting or story ideas suggested by them. Merton's first video garnered more 5 star ratings than any other YouTube video in history, making it the highest rated YouTube video ever. His musical style has been compared to

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

and

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., since May 2017. Folds was th ...

. Merton lives in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. There was speculation that "Merton" was in fact Ben Folds. While the two have similarities in appearance and music style, both have denied being the same person. Folds has in fact performed an

homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

to Merton at a concert where he similarly improvised songs while meeting people on Chatroulette. On a later video of Merton's, Ben Folds and Merton appeared together, proving that they are not the same person. Merton previously hosted his own show on www.mertonshow.com. It was a live interactive webcam show where he continued his improvisation as he did on Chatroulette. Shows were every Wednesday at 10 PM Eastern time. Sometimes, there was an international show at 21:00 GMT (4 PM Eastern). Merton was later hired by

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

to do some public events in the United Kingdom; on November 24, 2010, he played in

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

's South Terminal greeting international arriving passengers with his improv piano playing.

References

External links

Merton YouTube channel page
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Ben Folds' tributes to Merton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merton Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male singers Singers from Colorado American Internet celebrities American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians