1. AJ Rafael competed on season 4 of American Idol and was eliminated.
43 Facts About AJ Rafael
1. 2.
AJ Rafael released his debut album Red Roses in 2011 and went on tours in Southeast Asia and Australia to promote it.
3.
AJ 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.
4.
AJ Rafael has organized charity concerts for Autism Speaks since 2006 and started Music Speaks, an annual charity concert that informs people about autism.
5.
In 2020, AJ Rafael released "Waking Up Sucks ", his first original song since 2014.
6.
AJ Rafael posted to TikTok an impromptu duet he did with his girlfriend, Alyssa Navarro, of the Mulan song "Reflection".
7.
AJ Rafael wrote his first song titled "How's San Diego Pauli" in 2004 when he was 16 years old and uploaded it to Myspace.
8.
AJ Rafael composed the song for a girl whom he had connected with on the Internet for her birthday.
9.
Since Myspace did not support posting videos at that time, AJ Rafael wrote JavaScript and HTML to showcase his songs through the RealPlayer media player plugin.
10.
Shortly after, AJ Rafael performed in a Filipino festival in San Diego.
11.
AJ Rafael was a contestant in 2005 on season 4 of American Idol but was eliminated by three judges.
12.
AJ Rafael became a YouTube partner in 2008, which allowed him to receive a portion of the advertising income when people watch his videos.
13.
AJ Rafael released his songs on iTunes and Amazon and did livestreams through Ustream.
14.
AJ Rafael's voice is crystal-clear, with never a sour note in the mix.
15.
AJ Rafael performed songs from the EP during in-person concerts.
16.
That year, AJ Rafael routinely performed in various venues in the United States and the Philippines and landed a contract with a music management company.
17.
In 2011, AJ Rafael, charted in Billboards recently created "Uncharted" chart.
18.
AJ Rafael recorded the album in the San Diego home of a friend.
19.
AJ Rafael released the debut album titled Red Roses on June 7,2011.
20.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reviewer Pocholo Concepcion found that AJ Rafael "exuded charm and confidence as he played keyboards and sang tunes that were so honest, you had to listen and believe what he was saying" and the songs "hewed close to pop-rock with catchy mid-tempo beats, at times shifting gears to allow lead guitar solos".
21.
AJ Rafael worked with the actor Dante Basco and the production company Kinetic Films to create Red Roses The Movie, a musical that would have been inspired by his album with the same name and would have starred himself.
22.
AJ Rafael performed "We Could Happen" on the ABS-CBN morning show Umagang Kay Ganda in January 2012.
23.
That year, AJ Rafael did a collaboration with The Fung Brothers for a video titled "Asians Eat Weird Things" in which they rapped at a 99 Ranch Market about how Asians ate century egg, balut, chicken feet, pig intestines, and tripe.
24.
In June 2014, AJ Rafael penned an open letter to his viewers announcing his indefinite pause from performing at live shows in August 2014.
25.
AJ Rafael's last show before his break was in Guam on August 29,2014, at Father Duenas Memorial School's Phoenix Center.
26.
AJ Rafael performed songs from his album Red Roses as well as a Disney medley.
27.
In 2016, AJ Rafael inked an agreement with Disney Digital Network.
28.
In 2017, AJ Rafael performed at VidCon at the Anaheim Convention Center.
29.
AJ Rafael has been an actor, music director, and dancer in local musical theater shows including Tarzan.
30.
AJ Rafael performed in Spring Awakening in a show produced by Riverside Repertory Theater in 2016.
31.
AJ Rafael assumed the role of Terk in a Riverside City College production of the musical Tarzan in January 2019.
32.
AJ Rafael co-hosted the ninth installment of the show, which was virtual, with Alyssa Navarro in December 2020.
33.
AJ Rafael has organized charity concerts since 2006 and participates in activities hosted by Autism Speaks.
34.
AJ Rafael's parents came from Tondo, Manila, in the Philippines.
35.
AJ Rafael started taking piano classes when he was four or five years old, first from his father and later from a classical instructor.
36.
AJ Rafael's father hoped that his children would not pursue a career in music because of its financial instability.
37.
AJ Rafael identifies as Catholic and in his youth attended Moreno Valley's St Patrick's Catholic Church.
38.
AJ Rafael performed in numerous musicals in high school and community college.
39.
AJ Rafael attended Canyon Springs High School, where he performed in Starmites and Riverside City College, where he performed in Urinetown.
40.
AJ Rafael graduated in 2010 from the Berklee College of Music with a degree in songwriting.
41.
AJ Rafael has attributed Berklee professors Nancy Morris, Livingston Taylor, and Scarlet Keys as influences to his songwriting.
42.
AJ Rafael is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, and is friends with former Laker Jeremy Lin.
43.
In mid-2016, AJ Rafael began dating Alyssa Navarro who in 2020 was a Walt Disney Studio employee in its "Multicultural Audience Engagement" organization.