Arthur Joseph Rafael (born March 12, 1989), known professionally as AJ Rafael, is an American singer-songwriter, YouTuber, and TikToker. Born in Moreno Valley, California, he graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 2010.
Rafael started a Myspace account in 2003 and uploaded a song he wrote for a girl he met on the Internet. He also uploaded a Meg & Dia medley which garnered him attention from the band and received 30,000 views. He competed on season 4 of American Idol and was eliminated. In 2006, he posted his first YouTube video which was a Meg & Dia medley. In 2010, Rafael released an extended play titled Juicebox. Early the next year, he appeared on Billboard's recently created "Uncharted" chart. He released his debut album Red Roses in 2011 and went on tours in Southeast Asia and Australia to promote it. Rafael took an indefinite hiatus from touring in 2014 after he had difficulty filling seats at his concerts despite his having a half million YouTube subscribers and millions of video views.
Inspired by the film Crazy Rich Asians, he started the Crazy Talented Asians variety show in 2018 to showcase Asians in the performing arts community. He has organized charity concerts for Autism Speaks since 2006 and started Music Speaks, an annual charity concert that informs people about autism. In 2020, Rafael released "Waking Up Sucks (Sometimes)", his first original song since 2014. He posted to TikTok an impromptu duet he did with his girlfriend, Alyssa Navarro, of the Mulan song "Reflection". Filmed while they were in quarantine in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in California, the video went viral, accruing over 10 million views.
Rafael created a Myspace account in 2003. He wrote his first song titled "How's San Diego Pauli" in 2004 when he was 16 years old and uploaded it to Myspace. He composed the song for a girl whom he had connected with on the Internet for her birthday. Since Myspace did not support posting videos at that time, Rafael wrote JavaScript and HTML to showcase his songs through the RealPlayer media player plugin. He posted a Myspace video of himself performing a Meg & Dia medley which attracted the band's attention. The band shared his video on its Myspace page which led to the video's getting 30,000 views. Shortly after, Rafael performed in a Filipino festival in San Diego. He was a contestant in 2005 on season 4 of American Idol but was eliminated by three judges.
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