Many Asian Pacific Americans have helped enrich America’s history but oftentimes go unnoticed for their outstanding achievements. Join in celebrating Asian Pacific American Month by listening to these multi-talented artists!
Awkwafina – NYC Bitche$ Awkwafina is an American-born to a Chinese-American father and South Korean mother. “NYC Bitche$” is one of her most popular music videos with almost 2 million views. Not only is she a rapper, but she is also a comedian, a television host, and television personality.
Moira Dela Torre – Take Her To The Moon Moira Dela Torre is a Filipina singer-songwriter. She recently released her newest album called Malaya. One of her songs in her album that is a crowd favorite is “Take Her To The Moon”.
Hayley Kiyoko – Girls Like Girls Hayley Kiyoko is an American singer-songwriter. Her Asian descent comes from her mother who possesses Japanese ancestry. Hayley is also a very outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and her fans have dubbed her as a “lesbian Jesus”. Her most popular jam is “Girls Like Girls” which boasts 90 million views and features some of her old Disney friends.
AJ Rafael – She Was Mine AJ Rafael is a Filipino YouTuber whose most infamous song is “She Was Mine” from his Red Roses album. He is very well-known in the Filipino community. You will hardly find any Filipino who doesn’t know this song by him.
Us The Duo – “I Will Wait For You” Us The Duo is fold-pop duo composed of married couple Michael and Carissa Alvarado. Incidentally, they actually met up on the set of AJ Rafael’s music video for “We Could Happen” (another song that you should listen to!) and their love and music blossomed from there.
Mree – Against the Current Marie Hsiao, known as Mree, is an indie folk singer-songwriter who is of Taiwanese and Bulgarian descent. She started creating her own songs when she was just 14. In 2011, she came out with her debut album called Grow. This song throws it back to her first single ever, “Against the Current”.
Sam Tsui – Just A Dream Nelly Cover (feat. Christina Grimmie) Sam Tsui is an internet celebrity who rose up the ranks through YouTube with his famous music covers with Kurt Hugo Schneider. He is of Cantonese descent. This song he covered in November 2010 came into prominence along with the then rising star, Christina Grimmie, who has since passed. Enjoy this amazing rendition of two unbelievably talented artists.
Kina Grannis – In Your Arms Kina Grannis is of Japanese descent and she is the last on this list because I saved her for last. She is my personal favorite. Currently, she has multiple albums out but her most prominent ones are Stairwells and Elements. This song comes from Stairwells, perhaps one of my all-time favorite albums. What is so special about this particular music video is that it was made of 288,000 and it’s purely stop-motion. Its production took 22 months to make and 30 very dedicated people. If you are only going to watch one video today, let it be this.