Keenan Cahill, noted YouTube lip-syncer, dead at 27

Keenan Cahill, a YouTube star famous for his lip-sync videos with stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, 50 Cent and Jennifer Aniston, died Thursday. He was 27.

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Cahill died two weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery, People reported. His manager, David Graham, confirmed that Cahill died in a Chicago hospital, CNN reported. WGN-TV was the first news outlet to report his death.

“Keenan is an inspiration and let’s celebrate by remembering all the content he created, artists he collaborated with, music he produced and the love he had for everyone who supported him over the years,” Cahill’s official Facebook account posted on Friday, adding that his family has set up a GoFundMe account to help cover funeral costs.

Cahill had Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, which can cause heart disease and physical limitations, Variety reported.

The condition is a “progressive condition that causes many tissues and organs to enlarge, become inflamed or scarred, and eventually waste away (atrophy),” according to the National Library of Medicine.

Diagnosed with Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome when he was 1, Cahill, who was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, had a bone marrow transplant in 1997 and had several other surgeries during his lifetime, CNN reported.

Lip-syncing is common now, particularly on TikTok, but the practice was still a novelty in 2010 when Cahill began uploading videos of himself on YouTube lip-syncing current hit songs, People reported.

Cahill uploaded his first lip-sync video -- Perry’s “Teenage Dream” -- in August 2010, according to Variety. In 2011, Perry met with Cahill and they filmed a video together, according to the entertainment website.

On his YouTube account, which has roughly 721,000 subscribers, Cahill’s videos have garnered more than 500 million views. He posted his first lip-sync video in August 2010 to Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” which has reached 58 million views. A year later, the pop star met up with Cahill in person and they filmed a video together.

Cahill’s most popular video was with 50 Cent, as they lip-synced “Down on Me,” Variety reported. The video attracted 60 million total views.

Other celebrities made cameos in his videos, People reported. Other collaborations included Cahill with Bieber, Aniston, David Guetta, Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Jason Derulo and Tyra Banks, Deadline reported.

Cahill’s YouTube account has more than 720,00 subscribers and has had more than 500 million views through the years, according to Variety.

Cahill would become a musician in his own right, releasing a single in 2013 and later becoming a disc jockey and producer, CNN reported.

“He never made a lot of money, but he enjoyed what he was doing and brought smiles to the faces of so many people,” stated his GoFundMe page, which was started by his aunt.

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