Youtube, a platform for video upload that changed the face of internet buzz, extended the hand between celebs and their fans and introduced the world to “viral hits” between the play and stop button.

Priscilla Renea, a 22-year old singer/songwriter from Vero Beach, Florida, was discovered in the hype of this media outlet-with just her guitar and microphone. The southern songbird who’s most known for co-writing Rihanna’s “California King Bed” tells Seventeen that she discovered Youtube when she heard about a contest to perform with Justin Timberlake at The Grammys. Renea lost the contest, but grew fond of posting videos to Youtube.

Keep reading for the story of Priscilla Renea’s rise…

After garnering thousands of views on each post, the singer began to get noticed. I’d say she was Youtube’s biggest unsigned hype. Viewers jokingly said she could sing so well that she could sing the dictionary and it’d sound flawless. Priscilla took that as a challenge and recorded a video of her singing the dictionary in 2007. The video gained millions of views and soon enough reps were calling in to found out more about the songwriter, songstress, composer, guitarist and pianist.

A year after flying out to Atlanta to meet with a music management rep about a business deal, Priscilla was contacted by Katy Perry’s rep and was signed to a lucrative, four-year deal with Capitol Records.

With over 10 million views on Youtube, she released her debut album Jukebox, in December of 2009, preceded by the first single, “Dollhouse“. She wrote every song on the album.

The album, however, fell short commercially. Jukebox failed to crack the Billboard 200 and spawned no hit singles, but garnered mild-chart success with the first single.

It was a pop-led set of fun mid-tempos, ballads, and a few tunes that carried positive messages. The album spoke to a lost generation, but failed to reach many ears.

Regardless of her first effort, Priscilla’s songwriting skills were noticed and she began penning hits for some of today’s notable artists. Working with Rihanna, Cheryl Cole (“Promise This“), Selena Gomez (“Who Says“) and her most recent work is with label mate, Kelly Rowland, on “Work It Man” from her latest album, Here I Am.

Much like the title of her debut album, Pricilla is a lover of all styles of music. The beach-girl has been working on her sophomore album since March 2010 and is eyeing a 2011 release, but no official date has been set.

Through her Youtube, she has posted clips of her gearing up this album with snippets of the music. Here’s a snippet of Priscilla at a soundcheck singing”Oh Yeah?”, a ballad that will hopefully grace her next album.

Two months ago, frequent collaborator of Priscilla Renea’s-Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins mentioned that the songwriter would be doing some work on Mary J. Blige’s forthcoming album. He challenges Priscilla to bring her A-game for the “Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul”.

The way this young-hearted, light-spirited, songbird is racking writing credits, she’ll be accepting awards and accolades like checks. Here’s a leaked tune with fellow singer/songwriter, James Fauntleroy, entitled “Turn This Around”…produced by Rodney Jerkins.

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