Written by Rinnah Tan & Nur Ulfah
Elton John once said: “Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.”
From the legendary Michael Jackson representing iconic ‘80s music to Billie Eilish and Harry Styles taking over the current scene, music has wielded an emotional power over us. However, while we are familiar with the likes of Styles and Eilish, some of us may not be as familiar with singers from the Asia-Pacific region.
Here is Stories & Co.’s list of four Asian artists whom you should add to your Spotify playlist today.
1. Sezairi (Singaporean)
First on our list is homegrown artists, Sezairi Sezali, who is better known by his stage name, Sezairi. At 34, Sezairi has achieved some notable milestones in his music career.
He first made a name for himself at the age of 21, where he emerged as the winner for the third season of Singapore Idol in 2009. A year after, he made his debut as an artist by releasing his first album, Take Two. The album quickly garnered the attention of listeners when it soared to the top of the charts in 2010 with the first single of the album, Broken, claiming the number one spot in the ranking for top Asian songs of that year on 987FM.
Ever since then, Sezairi has continued in his pursuit of making music for more to enjoy and soon released his first self-titled EP in 2016, after signing with music label Sony Music Entertainment in 2015. Sezairi’s songs were mostly enjoyed by Asian listeners but it was his 2018 release of It’s You which gained international fame.
The song was brought back to life again after it blew up on TikTok, with many using it as their song of choice when making heartwarming and sentimental videos. Soon after the song went viral, Sezairi announced that it had been streamed more than 100 million times on Spotify, making him the first Singapore artist to achieve this feat.
2. Joji (japanese-australian)
George Kusunoki Miller, better known by his stage name, Joji, is a R&B and soul musician from Japan.
Before his career as a musician, Joji was known as a popular Youtube personality as Filthy Frank. He stopped going under that alias after deciding to pursue music as a full-time career in 2017 and debuted with his first EP titled In Tongues.
However, it was his album Ballads 1, which saw his first breakthrough as an artist. The album was his first gold-certified full length album, with the hit single, Slow Dancing in the Dark soaring through the R&B and hip hop charts and earning platinum status in Australia and the US. It earned him his most streamed single on Spotify, with 838 million streams and counting.
While riding on the high of that success, Joji swiftly went into working on his next album where he released another gold-certified single Sanctuary in 2019. He was subsequently invited to perform at major events like Coachella and is currently on tour in the US.
3. olivia rodrigo (Filipino-American)
Even if the name Olivia Rodrigo does not ring a bell, you would definitely have heard songs such as Drivers License, Good 4 U and Deja Vu – all hit songs from Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour.
Just like artists such as Miley Cyrus and Christina Aguilera, Rodrigo started her career as a young Disney star. She starred in Disney shows such as Bizaardvark, American Girl and the High School Musical Series before releasing her debut single, Drivers License. It became one of the best-selling songs of 2021, propelling her to mainstream fame. She subsequently released her debut solo album, Sour, which received widespread recognition and commercial success. A year later, Disney+ released the documentary, Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, which showcased Rodrigo’s creative process with writing the album.
Today, Rodrigo has achieved two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, five multi-platinum certifications as well as three Grammy Awards out of 7 nominations. She was also named the 2021 Entertainer of the Year award as well as the 2022 Woman of the Year award by Time and Billboard magazines.
Rodrigo’s father is Filipino-American and she has stated in interviews that she sees herself as an “Asian Pacific Islander”.
4. Mitski (Japanese-American)
Washing Machine Heart. I Bet on Losing Dogs. My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars. Intriguingly enough, these are all titles of songs written by Japanese-American artist Mitski.
Born Mitski Miyawaki, Mitski is a 31-year-old indie-rock music artist who grew up in a small town in Japan with her American father and Japanese mother. From writing her first song at 18, she has since released six albums over the past decade, and dubbed “the US’s best young singer-songwriter” by The Guardian.
An intensely private person in spite of being a public figure, Mitski had announced that she was taking a hiatus in 2019. The break was short-lived, and she recently returned with a new album, Laurel Hell, earlier this year. Written over the course of the pandemic, Mitski described the making of this album in The Guardian interview as “a process of learning how to be kinder to myself and, through that, be kinder to other people. I want to get out of being a hero of the story and being the villain.”
