Sam Tsui & Casey Breves

In the last few years, we were introduced to a different kind of Pop star. One that hasn't made his name by playing gigs and cutting records, but by recording YouTube videos. We'll be spotlighting some such cases early in the week. First off, a recently married couple.

This time we'll start at the end: YouTube star Sam Tsui got married to his longtime boyfriend, fellow YouTuber Casey Breves, last April. As is expected in the new normal, the wedding preparation, ceremony, and reception were used as the iconography of the video clip to the couple's new song, The Promise. Naturally, it was posted on YouTube:

Sam Lee Tsui was born on May 2, 1989. His father has roots in Hong Kong and his mother is of European descent and hails from Iowa. Tsui grew up in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, a street away from Kurt Schneider, his producer and accompanist, with whom he attended Wissahickon High School. He was active in high school musicals, and while studying at Yale University, he was a member of The Duke's Men of Yale, an all-male a cappella group, as well as a paid soloist at Trinity Church Southport.

Tsui made his television debut on ABC World News on October 28, 2009, singing The Jackson 5's I'll Be There. He appeared in several other TV shows and also produced along with Kurt Schneider a series of episodes of College Musical, a comedy web series parodying the High School Musical film series, with original songs composed by Schneider. The episodes garnered millions of views on YouTube.

In 2010, Tsui released his first cover album, The Covers. The album, released on February 9, 2010, features covers of hits from Michael Jackson, Journey, Beyoncé, Jason Mraz, and Lady Gaga among other artists. The album included Owl City's Fireflies:

... And here's Journey's Don't Stop Believing, in Glee fashion:

Tsui has also released 23 singles digitally, over the course of the last 7 years. His first was The Band Perry cover If I Die Young:

In December 2010, Tsui collaborated with fellow YouTube singer Christina Grimmie, singing Just a Dream, which was viewed more than 125 million times. Grimmie died on June 10, 2016, of gunshot wounds inflicted in a targeted attack that followed her concert performance in Orlando, Florida.

In 2011, Tsui debuted his own YouTube channel, apart from his collaboration with Kurt Schneider. In November 2011, he made a mashup with It Will Rain by Bruno Mars, and Set Fire to the Rain by Adele.

In 2012, among others, he released a cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know. Here's the a cappella version:

Tsui released his first full-length original album in May 2013 titled Make It Up. Here's the album's title track:

Here's Grey Area:

... And here's Shadow:

On September 9, 2013, Sam wrote and recorded a duet with Elle Winter entitled Unsinkable (Music Is Medicine). The proceeds of the single go towards pediatric cancer research as a part of the Music Is Medicine's Donate a Song project.

In 2014 he released the Wildfire EP. Here's the title song:

In 2015 he released a mashup of Thinking Out Loud and I'm Not the Only One (the Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith hits). Duetting with him is future husband Casey Breves:

A single from 2016, whose video includes a gay couple, is called Secret:

Sam Tsui has come out as gay, a day before he married his partner. In a vlog, which he labelled an understated “coming out video of a sort”, Tsui announced he is in a long-term relationship with Casey Breves.

The couple actually married the day after the video was posted as Breves shared a photo of the two of them on their wedding day on Saturday.

In the coming out video, Tsui said he hadn’t thought it was necessary to discuss his personal life before as it never really had much to do with his music, but reiterated that although he waited to discuss it openly he was not ashamed.

“Waiting to tell you guys about this does not mean that I am or was ashamed of anything. I am incredibly proud of who I am and very proud of my relationship with Casey”, he said. “I also never really felt the need to do a big teary coming out video because honestly in my daily life it’s such a non-issue and such a small facet of who I am.”

Here's the coming out video:

Casey Breves was born on May 14, 1984 in New York City and also graduated from Yale University. He first gained fame as a member of the Grammy-winning classical vocal ensemble Chanticleer, with whom he performed from 2010 to 2013. Here he is, performing Erika Lloyd's Cells Planets with Chanticleer:

Here are Chanticleer performing We Two Boys Together Clinging (composer: Steven Sametz, text by Walt Whitman, (from Leaves of Grass).

In late 2013 he went solo and released his first original song, Starlight. Dave Eggar is on cello:

From the same period, here's a cover of Sara Bareilles' Gravity. Skip Brevis is on piano. The videography is by Sam Tsui and Casey's brother Dylan:

Just the Same (2014) is also a beautiful song:

Here he is in 2015 covering Angel by Sarah McLachlan:

Here's his single I Touched The Fire, released on May 11, 2015. It's produced by Sam Tsui and Danny Ware.

Also from 2015, a collaboration with his brother Dylan on Edith Piaf's immortal La Vie En Rose:

Another one from 2015, a collaboration with Collabro on Bob Dylan's late-period classic, Make You Feel My Love:

From January 2016, here he is duetting with Sam Tsui in a mashup of Stand By You and Stand By Me:

From April this year, here's Away We Go (Tsui's on backing vocals):

Sam Tsui has a good Pop voice, a strong presence and he's so far the more successful of the two. I do like Casey Breves a little bit more though. He's got that something that makes one pay attention and turn a casual listen into something deeper. They do have very good chemistry together, and I really hope that their marriage will also help them in their further artistic growth. I'm not sure if crossing over from YouTube success to Singles chart success matters so much anymore, but if it does, then it would be nice if these two managed to do it.