APASA's Got Talent 2020 🌟

APASA’s Got Talent, as told from the perspective of Assistant Director Kimberly Phung and Communications Chair Richard Huang.

Dante Basco effectively described our year in three words: “That’s rough, buddy.” However, last weekend was a clear highlight in this crazy year.

Welcome back to another spectacular year of APASA’s Got Talent!

This year, we were fortunate enough to still hold the event online. Talent from all across the nation shared their unique skills, from singing, dancing, to magic. For those of you that don’t want spoilers and want to see the talent videos before you read this blog, view our Facebook event page!

Our intern hosts, Cade Sugiyama and Emma Hsu did an amazing job moderating! Joining us today were six finalists chosen by YOU all to be judged in front of our three celebrity judges: 

  • Singer-songwriter Megan Lee, who has produced stunning music in both the American and Korean music industry

  • Anthony Lee, the co-founder of Kinjaz and a well-respected dancer and choreographer that has taught at dance studios all over the world

  • Dante Basco, an absolute OG actor in the entertainment industry, known for his role as Rufio in the film Hook, and of course, ZUKO from Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

The judge’s lighthearted jokes and insight about their fields made the night both entertaining and informative. More on their deep talks later.

Now, onto the highlights.

The show started off with a breathtaking dance from Carolyn Koh. Not only was the dance itself amazing, she directed and edited the dance video herself! The cuts and filmmaking enhanced the quality of her dance, making it stand out. Anthony said she had a “deep sense of character and self in her expressions.” And despite the hiccups in technology, it was a phenomenal opening to APASA’s Got Talent!

Up next was Melissa Tungare, one of APASA’s very own member org representatives! She performed an original song, “Home at Last” that she finished the day before Got Talent. I mean, the TALENT of creating a song? Unbelievable, and we as the audience were lucky to be a part of it. The bridge caught everyone’s attention and received strong praise from the judges, leaving many of us speechless.

The magic continued with Jeffrey Lee: magic over ZOOOM! Jeffrey did an interactive magic trick with the judges and high-key thought he failed because he showed the wrong card to Dante....but  we were baited! It actually worked out, we just had to check his instagram account! Megan was completely blown away and shocked at the magic trick. Anthony looked a lil sus of it, but I mean...it was pretty crazy.

 
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If you need someone to serenade you in any language you want, ask Kyle Voong. He was our second live performance of the night! Singing in multiple languages, from Japanese, Korean, English and German, the audience was slowly becoming a fanbase for Kyle. The judges were extremely impressed with his ability to meld the languages together for an amazing cover of “Plastic Love.”

 
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Into our second dance performance, Justin He and the Stir Fry Boyz demoed their dance choreography. Created by Justin and completed with Bryan Ho and Nicholas Tanga, the video received so much dance praise from Anthony. Coming from the co-founder of Kinjaz, this was a magical moment for the boys. Dante was impressed as per usual, and Megan commented as well, calling them different flavors of ramen lol.

Our final performance was Leon Hua, our second APASA member org rep! He gave us a breathtaking mashup of Best Part by Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. and What Do U Mean? by Justin Bieber, shocking everyone when he started to beatbox! His performance showed great musicality and understanding of piecing together music. The judges were thoroughly impressed, and our ears were once again blessed by his wonderful voice. Something worthy to note, of course, was Anthony’s comment on Leon’s “yellow ass room” (LOL).

 
 

After the performances, the next thing was to determine the WINNERS!!! Participants and judges were able to vote….and to reveal our winners for the 2020-2021 APASA’s GOT TALENT….

  • In third place was Justin He AND THE STIR FRY BOYZ! They won a $50 Amazon gift card!

  • In second place was the magic man himself, Jeffrey Lee, received a $75 Amazon gift card!!!

  • Finally, the WINNER off this year’s talent show was LEON HUA! His vocals were out of this world, and he is the winner of $100 Amazon gift card (Jeff Bezos please sponsor us already :3) 

Again, congratulations to our winners and all the other contestants. We were so lucky to have the opportunity to watch and listen to the wonderful talent here at USC.

We were able to see the different generations of Asian Americans within the entertainment space and the progress we’ve made! Words of wisdom were passed down, and super inspirational words from Dante made us think deeply about life. It would be wrong to say we weren’t completely moved by how amazing our judges were. Of course, Zuko also did his signature “That’s rough, buddy” AHHHHHH. The event could not have gone better, and all 120 watchers could agree that this was a wonderful day that COVID couldn’t ruin.

We had such a fun time organizing APASA’s Got Talent this year. Shoutout to our programming chair Josh Lu for working so hard to make this happen. Thank you so much for coming, and we hope to see you again next year!

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