Cassie

Her day job is modeling for the likes of Target, Adidas, and Abercrombie & Fitch, but her heart and soul go into singing R&B. Cassie, a striking 19-year-old half Filipina and half African American, is fast becoming the first diva of the web generation.

With a Billboard Hot 100 single, “Me & U”, getting big play on radio, MTV, and in Search, Cassie’s buzz is strong and rising. Thanks to 13 to 20-year-old (over 60%) and female (over 75%) searchers who can’t get enough of her, “Cassie” searches moved up 109% over the past week. She now holds a coveted place in the top 200 queries.

Cassie may ultimately find success because she understands what moves MP3s and viral videos — she’s just a kid on the Net herself. Her MySpace page gets millions of hits. She launches her videos on YouTube. And she shares her trepidations and triumphs with her fans on her blog. The strength of her online buzz has attracted the industry muscle of no less than P. Diddy and Tommy Mottola.

Perhaps her greatest appeal is that Cassie’s still a 19-year-old girl, just as dazzled by her growing fame as her fans are. At her debut on “MTV Total Request Live”, she zoomed in with her own video camera on the audience going wild. She wanted to be able to blog about “everyone freaking out,” she explained.