Sam and Kurt on 2-night Manila concert: A good mix of things

MANILA, Philippines — YouTube wonders Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider are in Manila for a two-night concert and their fans can look forward to hearing a mix of popular covers and original materials.

“Well we’ll have a good mix of things. We’re gonna have covers, medleys, mash ups that we’ve done online. Most of the new material that fans can look forward to is original stuff,” Tsui said Monday of the two-night show on June 25 and 26 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The duo, who have known each other since middle school and later both studied at Yale University, are bound by their love of music and is known for their collaboration covers of hits by Adele, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and dozens more. Their cover of Nelly’s “Just a Dream” with Christina Grimmie — has 81 million hits and counting on YouTube.

Tsui and Schneider’s YouTube channels both have millions of followers, and they are among the first musicians to establish such a huge fan base. Tsui, the Internet singing sensation has over 100 million views and about 1.5 million followers on his YouTube channel. Schneider, the producer of most of Tsui’s videos, has over four million subscribers and close to 900 million views.

It was a creative medley of Michael Jackson hits that the duo made in 2009 that gave them early recognition in cyberspace.  Last year, Tsui released his original album “Make it Up.”

“Before [YouTube] existed it was a lot more difficult for people like us who are musicians who love to make content and share it with a platform like YouTube. With it we are able to share our work all over the world. Here in the Philippines we’ve never been here before and yet we already have fans who appreciate our music so it’s incredible to have this kind of platform,” Tsui said.

So what is their advice to people who are aspiring to follow their footsteps? Never give up.

“The most important thing is not give up. If you love what you’re doing just keep doing it. The first year we’re putting up videos and they were getting a lot of views [but] that Michael Jackson video was the first that took off…If we stopped because the videos weren’t getting a ton of views we wouldn’t be here right now,” Schneider said.

“We’re always trying to stay fresh and innovative both digitally and as well as musically. I think on YouTube it’s really important because people go on YouTube to see something really interesting as well as hear great music,” Schneider said.

Tickets of their shows here are available at https://smtickets.com and ticketworld.com.ph.

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