Sam Milby: Back to My Roots

[Justin]

Kumusta sa inyong lahat!  Welcome to my third, and probably final (unfortunately) post for Asian Americans Abroad.  As much as I would like to stay, the executives here at AAA have informed me that they simply cannot envision a future of professional Asian American classroom blogging for me, and that they would be seeking more reputable talent to replace me.  It's been an honorable four weeks serving you, loyal readers.

You fired!

Back to the topic at hand.  I originally wanted to go into detail about Wang Leehom, but in my head this blog has been more about trying to bring a new audience to foreign singers that I've been a fan of.  Therefore, today I will introduce you all to a star from my own parents' home country: the one and only Sam Milby.

Sam Milby is the youngest child of Elsie Lacia, from Tago, Surigao del Sur (a small province on the southern island of Mindanao, Philippines), and Lloyd Milby, an American entrepreneur of Irish ancestry.  Milby's first passion in life was figure skating, for which, starting at the age of 9, he had lived with his coach to train, only taking weekends off to be with his family.  Though he wasn't exposed to many Fil-Ams (Filipino Americans.  Filipinos like to abbreviate, since many of our words can be quite lengthy.), he was kept in touch with his mother's roots through several family trips to the Philippines throughout his childhood.  It was not until 2005 that he seriously considered a career in entertainment.

Later in 2005, Milby moved to the Philippines, acting in commercials until successfully landing a spot for the first season of the television program Pinoy Big Brother, which is the Philippine localized version of the Dutch reality show Big Brother, which centers around 12 isolated housemates who are periodically "evicted" two at a time.  Although Sam was not one of the original 12 cast in the show, a previous cast member had dropped out of the show for a family emergency, prompting producers to hold an last minute second audition for a replacement.  A friend of Milby encouraged him to take the audition, shown above, and although he was eventually voted off the show, he had gained significant media attention and had producers clamoring for him.

Despite having a focus on acting, Milby released a self-titled debut album in 2006, followed by three more, two in 2009 and the most recent in 2011, all of which were successful.  The song shown above Mahal Pa Rin (Still Love You) is from his 2009 album A Little Too Perfect and showcases a very American-influenced style ballad.  For those songs recorded in English, which I highly encourage you to check out. Milby has since attempted to break into the American scene in 2012, when he stayed in New York for 3 months attending auditions and guest starring for one night in the Broadway musical Godspell.  Although he did not land any roles, he left an apparently very good impression with producers and vows to return once more after completing some Philippine contracts that he had signed prior to his trip.

Beautiful motherland.

Sam Milby is somewhat of an inspiration to me as he was one of the first Filipino artists (the rest were Chinese) that I discovered during my "American denialism" phase towards the end of Junior high.  I was quite obnoxious at this point of my life.  Anyways, the fact that Milby left for the Philippines unable to speak Tagalog (He does have a slight accent in his audition video), his relative lack of Filipino peers in school, and even his mixed ancestry has led me to feel a somewhat deeper connection to him, than either of the singers I previously featured in my posts.  Tagalog may be my first language, but my ease with it is all but gone since my parents switched our home language due to initial difficulties communicating at school.  I had a handful Filipino friends in school, sure, but our interactions were in English.  I am of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry, and I'm sure that growing up Milby has also wondered about certain aspects of his cultural identity.  I have been living a somewhat similar life (sans talent), and it inspires me to see someone like Milby setting his eye on such a big goal, and becoming a huge success in the process of reaching that goal.

Once again, we have a tale of someone who has struggled for even a glance from the American entertainment industry, who nevertheless found almost immediate acceptance, and then popularity, abroad.  I am unsure about the future of this blog, but I hope that similar outlets come to pop up and spread word of these names to the rest of the U.S. so that the "melting pot" of the world may come to experience and enjoy all the flavors of the world.

Once more, it's been a pleasure writing for you all, and please be sure to check out some of the other authors' posts here on AAA.

Pa'alam na!