Chris Crocker (born December 7, 1987) is an American Internet celebrity, blogger, and recording artist. Crocker gained international fame in September 2007 from his viral video "Leave Britney Alone", in which he tearfully defended pop singer Britney Spears's comeback performance at the MTV Video Music Awards; his video had over four million views in two days. The video received international media attention, hundreds of parodies and criticism for Crocker. He is a self-described "edutainer" who produces and acts in multiple transgressive videos. In almost all of Crocker's work he presents himself as an openly gay and effeminate Southern adolescent in a "small-minded town" in the Bible Belt where his sexual orientation and outspokenness are a "subtext... rarely addressed directly and never completely accepted." The Tennessee-based Crocker, a stage name, keeps his identity and exact location private because according to him, and as seen in the public comments to his work, there are safety concerns and death threats in response to his YouTube and MySpace video blogs and profile. According to his MySpace profile, Crocker lives in Los Angeles as of January 2008. As of May 2010, Crocker has returned home to Tennessee and solely travels to Los Angeles for business ventures. His work consists mainly of short-form self-directed monologues shot in his grandparents' home.As of October 2010, Crocker's videos have received a combined 50 million plays on MySpace, and his vlog channel on YouTube is the 100th most viewed of all time in all categories, with over 205 million video views.Crocker's detractors and critics have accused him of narcissism, melodramatics, histrionics, and using Spears' personal shortcomings to bolster his own fame. Others have accused Crocker of acting in the "Leave Britney Alone" video, although he insisted it was genuine on a September 2007 appearance on Maury Povich's Maury show. In September 2008, Crocker kicked off a music career when he released his debut single "Mind in the Gutter".The song was initially meant to be the lead single from his unreleased debut album, Turned On. In March 2009, Crocker leaked an unreleased song entitled "Fell for the Enemy". After the leaking of "Fell For the Enemy", Crocker did not return to the music business for awhile, stating he felt as though producers saw him as "just another paycheck." However, April 2010 saw the release of Crocker's second single, a ballad titled "Love You Better". The single came in two versions, the studio version as well as an acoustic version. Shortly afterwards, in July of the same year, Crocker's third single, "Best of Both Worlds" was released to generally negative reception.[citation needed] October 13 saw the official release of "Fell For the Enemy", the song Crocker had previously leaked online. The following month, Crocker released his fifth single, "Freak of Nature". In January 2011, Crocker released his first music video, for his latest song "Freak of Nature" and in February, Crocker released "I Want Your Bite", which peaked at #12 on the iTunes Dance Charts. Crocker also confirmed a music video for "I Want Your Bite", which will be released in March 2011. On August 29, 2010, Crocker announced via a YouTube video, titled "Me 2 u. [A lil' update]" that he will be "self releasing" his own album in 2011. However, recording will take place in 2010. The album later was pushed back and instead Crocker announced his first EP titled "The First Bite". The EP will include "Freak Of Nature", "I Want Your Bite" as well as three completely new songs. "The First Bite" was released digitally on iTunes on March 19 2011. Crocker released a preview video for his EP on March 15, 2011 and a full song titled "One Day" on 17 March, 2011 on YouTube.