#196 | AJ Rafael | How he got into music, his love for Hawai'i, and almost 20 years YouTube

AJ Rafael is an accomplished Filipino-American singer-songwriter from California. He has amassed over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. His debut album Red Roses has reached the iTunes and Billboard charts, and he has collaborated with artists such as Tori Kelly, Jeremy Passion, Kina Grannis, and past podcast guest Roman from Kolohe Kai. This popular YouTuber is known for his pop-rock music and DIY approach to music promotion and was named a Filipino American Game Changer by the City of Los Angeles in 2018 for his contribution to the music industry as a proud Asian American independent artist. As an actor, he has stage credits in productions such as “Burn all Night,”, “Mamma Mia!”, “Greese”, and “Spring Awakening”. You can catch him on the Sweet or Savory podcast with his wife Alyssa and both of them in person at Blue Note Hawai’i in December during their “Our little Christmas Tour”.

In this episode we talk about growing up in California, how he got into music, starting to upload videos to YouTube, his YouTube and music career, his love for Hawai’i, his wife Alyssa, their upcoming Blue Note show in Waikiki, and so much more.

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