Maria Lourdes Aragon (born July 17, 2000)[1] is a singer from Manitoba, Canada of Filipino descent. Aragon gained fame after a YouTube video of her performing Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" went viral.

As a YouTube sensation

On February 16, 2011, a video of Aragon performing a cover of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga was posted to her sister's YouTube channel to showcase her talent to friends and family. The video caught Lady Gaga's attention when entertainment blogger Perez Hilton sent Gaga her Born This Way Cover , and she was so impressed by Maria's performance that she retweeted a link to the video.[3] In a week, her video reached over 11 million views. As of September 5, 2011, the video had over 41 million hits.

During an interview on HOT 103 in Winnipeg, Lady Gaga called into the show to tell Maria how moved she had been by her performance. Lady Gaga then invited an already surprised Aragon to perform "Born This Way" with her at The Monster Ball Tour concert in Toronto. On March 3, 2011, Aragon joined Lady Gaga on stage at the Air Canada Centre, where they performed an acoustic duet of "Born this Way" with Maria sitting on Gaga's lap, playing piano and Lady Gaga working the pedals. Aragon later rejoined Lady Gaga and her team of back up dancers for an uptempo finale version of "Born this Way".[4]

American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres took notice of her from emails and petitions requesting for Aragon's appearance on the show and eventually invited Aragon to appear on her show on February 21, 2011, where Aragon again performed "Born This Way" on the piano earning a standing ovation from the audience. On March 29, 2011, Aragon performed "Born This Way" at her home for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She and Harper also performed a duet of John Lennon's song "Imagine".

In 2011, she appeared in a commercial for HTC singing the K'naan song, Wavin' Flag.[5] She performed at the 2011 Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill, which included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in attendance, as part of their 2011 royal tour of Canada.

Manny Pacquiao chose Maria to sing the Philippine national anthem on his upcoming fight with Manuel Marquez on Nov 12,2011.

 Eponymous debut album

On July 20, 2011, Aragon arrived in the Philippines where she signed a contract with Star Records, the same recording company who also signed Charice.[1] Her first self-titled album consist of seven tracks[7] including "You're My Home", composed by Odette Quesada and originally sang by Lea Salonga for the Star Cinema film, Way Back Home.[8] Among the songs in Aragon's album is her rendition of Lady Gaga's ���Born This Way," which catapulted her to international recognition.[9] To promote the album, she appeared on several ABS CBN shows including the musical variety show, ASAP Rocks and series of mall shows.

Lady Gaga Performs ���Born This Way��� With YouTube Star Maria Aragon

 
Lady Gaga shares the stage and is brought to tears as she performs 'Born This Way' with 10 Year Old Singer and YouTube Sensation, Maria Aragon at the Monster Ball concert held at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Lady Gaga invited Maria Aragon out on stage 2 different times during the show. Once to perform 'Born This Way' on the Paino, and finally again at the end of the show during her last song 'Born This Way' Radio Version. March 03, 2011.