Lele Pons is a sketch comedy Vine star turned YouTuber who's become a massive social media influencer across multiple digital platforms. She now has struck an exclusive record deal with Universal Music Group.
On Wednesday, the music label giant announced the deal by welcoming the YouTuber to their "family" of musicians.
The news of the deal was also preplanned with the release of her first single and music video backed by UMG, "Celoso," on Friday.
Within hours, the Spanish-language song and video has already amassed over half a million views.
Pons has nearly 11 million subscribers to her YouTube channel, 1.89 million followers on Twitter, and 26.8 million followers on Instagram.
The news of her major music contract was met with a lot of surprise and celebration from adoring fans.
@lelepons Yesss!!!!👑 I'm so happy and proud of you!!❤️ I can't wait 😍🤗
Other influencers publicly congratulated her and called her multitalented.
I think @lelepons is Illuminati or some shit like that. Too much success and talent in a body 🤣 😂🙌🏻 JK!!!! 🤣😂😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Congrats Lele!!! Can’t wait for “CELOSO” Keep killin’ it!!!!! Proud of you!
However, many found themselves confused over the news — Lele Pons, who's known for performing quick slapstick sketches is now a musician? Or was even an aspiring musician?
@UMG @lelepons you're a singer?
Lele Pons sings now?
People became frustrated with Universal for giving a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to someone who was already incredibly famous and they claim was not actively pursuing a music career.
@UMG Why not choose one of the underprivileged people who don’t have as good of opportunities with WAY more talent to sign, instead of giving auto-tune and record deals to people who are already fucking famous for literally nothing productive 🙄
@UMG @lelepons You know there’s a whole ton of talented ACTUAL musicians you could have signed, right?
@UMG @lelepons You could’ve signed actually talented artists but you do this instead smh
"Lele Pons is killing it. Making ... money from 2 trades she has no talent in, music and comedy," one person snarked.
@UMG @lelepons Lele Pons is killing it. Making from money from 2 trades she has no talent in, music and comedy.
Others said it seems the music industry is shifting toward talent who already have mass audiences built in, as opposed to working with undiscovered talent.
@bIazingxmexican @UMG @lelepons Well yeah, as long as they’re easy money makers then anyone can be “talented.”
A rep for Pons told BuzzFeed News that Pons has a background in music, including taking formal opera classes when she was young, and had hoped to become more involved in music.
@UMG @lelepons Universal works like most for profit companies. They must give investors the highest returns. Pons drags tens of millions of fans, it's natural they want to tap on that fame to sell records. Promoting a talented but unknown artist is too much work and money
BuzzFeed News has reached out to UMG. In a statement to Variety, the founder of the specific label Pons is signed to said, "Lele is the modern definition of a triple threat."
"She is a global entertainer who attracts tens of millions of viewers through digital screens," said Celine Joshua, the founder of the Universal subset label called 10:22 pm.
His colleague Sam Shahidi added, "Lele is a Swiss Army knife of entertainment. She is an amazing actor, director, writer, dancer, singer."
While some are still questioning the motion, others have optimistically expressed that her music is more enjoyable than her actual comedy.
Lele Pons' music is definitely easier to listen to than her skits are to watch.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to Pons and her team.