APASA's Got Talent 2018

Hey everyone! I’m Amanda, an APASA intern, and I hope you all survived the week to make it to spring break! So, APASA’s Got Talent was last Saturday, and I can honestly say it was one of my favorite events we’ve had all year! We got to see 7 contestants of all different APA backgrounds and identities perform and receive feedback from our 4 celebrity judges, Shawn Halim, Megan Lee, JamieBoy, and Samica! We also had bomb Dulce pastries (my personal favorite was the matcha cream-filled donut).

From being involved with the auditions of the contestants to finally seeing them kill it on stage, I was so blown away by the amount of crazy talent and diverse performances that night.

I think one of my favorite parts was that we as an audience got to see the heart of the contestants as well as tidbits of their respective cultures. Saturday was definitely a night of celebration of culture, creativity, and expression. Being Asian Americans, we don’t always get to have the spotlight on us in mainstream media, but that wasn’t the case at all on Saturday night. I felt so proud watching each and everyone of them!

Let’s not forget the amazing talent of all the judges! I’m not going to lie, I definitely fangirled throughout all of JamieBoy’s performance, ESPECIALLY because he sang my favorite song, Daniel Caesar’s Get You <3 I even got to escort him from the parking lot to the venue LOL what a great time. But seriously all the judges were sooo good that I couldn’t keep myself from cheering obnoxiously loud for each one, oops.

Congrats to all of the contestants because each and every one of you were so amazing, and you should be so proud of yourselves! An especially big congrats to the winner, Alex Luu, who gave an incredibly relatable and real AF spoken-word performance. Cheryl K took second place with her extremely vulnerable performance of her original song Purpose. I was quaking in my seat because I could definitely feel all the emotions that went into that song. Sneha Patkar got third place with her insanely fast Kathak dance!

I can’t wait to see what next year’s APASA’s Got Talent has in store!