'Chocolate Rain' still a hit

NEW YORK - And the winner for best music video: "Chocolate Rain." Tay Zonday morphed from an unknown musician to an Internet superstar who got booked on national TV shows after his song "Chocolate Rain" - an amateur clip of his baritone crooning - went viral last year. Now he's among the 12 winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards, recognizing the top user-created videos of 2007. YouTube users voted on six nominees for each category: music, sports, comedy, instructional, short film, inspirational, commentary, creative, politics, series, eyewitness and "adorable."

"It's the new Emmys," Zonday, 25, said of the video-sharing site's March 21 awards in a telephone interview. "It's the next Oscars. The next People's Choice Awards. It'll be interesting to see what happens five years, 10 years (from now)."

Chris Crocker, who shot to stardom in his video freak-out over Britney Spears' public meltdown, was beat in the commentary category by a clip from Michael Buckley of the popular online show "What the Buck?" slamming fellow YouTube celebrity Lonelygirl15.

The Obama Girl, aka Amber Lee Ettinger, didn't wind up winning in the politics category. That honor went to the serious-minded "Stop the Clash of Civilizations" video by the global organization avaaz.org.

"(It's a) video that deals with . . . serious issues like discrimination, and that video's done in kind of a neat way that speaks to young people," said You-Tube spokesman Aaron Ferstman.

Ferstman said the prizes consist of "notoriety" and a trophy he described as "very heavy with a metal base" supporting a "big glass ‘play' button."

Ferstman said: "These are the (videos) that really will stand out and over time, you know, you'll say, ‘Hey, do you remember the Laughing Baby'?"