There are lots of talented musicians and artists in Singapore whom many of us may not have heard of. Fortunately, given the growing usage of YouTube, discovering talent has become much easier. Today, we introduce Steph Micayle, a home-grown talent who is growing in terms of popularity and exposure!

Steph is not just a fantastic singer, but also does song-writing and designing. She has over 100k likes on her Facebook page where she often posts updates to connect with her fans. On the YouTube platform, her acoustic take on the viral song Gangnam style by global sensation Psy, has over 9 million views.

Definitely a unique sound!

We had a chance to interview Steph this week, and her cheerful disposition and bubbly personality livened up the atmosphere. When we asked her what motivated her to start her YouTube channel, Steph recalled chit-chatting with her sister and the idea of creating a YouTube channel popped in her mind. She also jokingly reminisced how her first YouTube username was silly, but was the fad at that time- using tweaked names like “fweak” for freak.

Her current YouTube channel is the third account she has created, with six video uploads on it. Her name Steph Micayle, also interested us, as we wondered where the word ‘Micayle’ came from. It was because she joined Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Red Camp, she pretended to be sisters with a friend. She was Micayle, and her friend was Jayne! When she joined Ngee Ann Polytechnic after, the name Micayle stuck with her. So why exactly Micayle? She jumbled her favourite names Michelle and Kayla together to get Micayle. One fun fact about Stephanie: She is also multi-racial (Chinese,  Japanese and Indian)!

To these YouTube singers, many of them have artistes they admire greatly to inspire them to keep on doing music. When probed about who are her favourite idols, she mentioned “all the Christinas” with no hesitation.

She adores Christina Aguilera, whom she thinks is a vocal powerhouse.

Christina Aguilera

She also mentioned Hayley Williams, the lead vocalist of American rock band Paramore, and also gushed over Kimbra, the New Zealand native who is featured on 2012 multi-platinum single “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye.

Kimbra

The singer, who is performing this coming music festival, feels a little nervy when she performs alone, but feels much more at ease with her guitarist and keyboardist. Especially for the YouTube Festival, she is extremely excited to meet David Choi and Chester See.

Steph also is attracted to songs by bands such as Tonight Alive, Escape the Faith and All Time Low.

Tonight Alive

All Time Low

However, she also do get songs like Gangnam Style stuck in her head and therefore, will cover them on her YouTube channel.

As a home-grown talent, most of the video views on her channel surprisingly come from overseas- including Germany, France, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. She believes that YouTube is an international platform for her to connect with her fans, and she has had really positive experiences with fans who recognise her on the streets.

On her personal life, she is also intending to move to Sydney very soon, but she will continue doing music videos and continue her YouTube channel. She adores pandas very much ever since she saw pandas on her trip to Hong Kong. Steph also showed us her cute character in World of Warcraft, her favourite massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

Given her lovable personality and enthusiasm, Steph is definitely a star to watch on the YouTube scene. Here is Steph with Atiqah and Fiza.

She will be performing at the YouTube FanFest, alongside with Mychonny, David Choi, Chester See on the first day of the event, which is tomorrow! It’s not too late to purchase tickets, so head over to the website here. Tickets are $88 for one day, and $150 for both days of the music event.

*Prices exclude $3 processing fee

Make sure to subscribe to Steph on her YouTube channel and like her Facebook page!

For more details on the YouTube FanFest, check out our blog post here.