User:MattWade/Sam

Samuel Tsui (born May 2, 1989 ) is a Chinese American musician and Internet celebrity who rose to fame on YouTube. He is best known for covering and performing songs by popular artists, as well as original medleys and mashups. Tsui is currently an undergraduate at Yale University.

Background
According to his profile on The Duke's Men of Yale's official website, Tsui is from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Tsui is of Chinese mixed origin and grew up a street away from Kurt Schneider, his producer and accompanist, who along with Tsui attended Wissahickon High School. Tsui attends Yale University, where he is a member of Davenport College. He is expected to graduate with a major in classical Greek in 2011.

Career
Collaborations between Tsui and Schneider began in high school with an electronic keyboard, primitive recording equipment, and GarageBand. Both attended Yale University, and there a musical partnership developed. They have produced videos ranging from covers and original medleys to the College Musical online series. As of February 2011, the YouTube channel "KurtHugoSchneider" has garnered over 170 million total views and more than 670,000 subscribers. The most viewed video is the Michael Jackson medley, with more than twenty million views. This medley is one of several where, using multiple pitch variations, Tsui sings as a one-man choir, covering both lead vocals and background vocals, ranging from baritone to tenor. His videos have been described by Time as a combination of Glee and Attack of the Clones. Tsui was also a member of The Duke's Men of Yale, an all-male a cappella group.

In December 2010, Tsui made a collaboration with fellow YouTube singer Christina Grimmie, singing  Just A Dream. On February 3 2011, Tsui was featured on Britney Spears' official website, along with his cover of Hold It Against Me.

College Musical
Starting in 2009, Tsui and Schneider have produced a series of episodes of College Musical, a comedy web series parodying the High School Musical film series, with original songs composed by Schneider. Four episodes have been released, with Tsui playing the lead role of Cooper. Following the popularity of the series, it was announced that a film, currently in production, would be made based on the series.

Television appearances
In November 2009, Tsui appeared on The Bonnie Hunt Show where he was interviewed and performed Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". He also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on February 22, 2010 along with his producer, Kurt Schneider. The pair was interviewed, and Tsui performed a medley of Michael Jackson's songs. Tsui also appeared on ABC World News on October 28, 2009, singing The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There". In November 2009, Tsui appeared on It's On with Alexa Chung, singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for the cast of American television series Glee. On December 2, 2010, Tsui gave an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and performed a mashup of Katy Perry's "Firework" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" with Schneider.

The Covers
A digital album, The Covers was released to the iTunes Store on February 9, 2010 by Sh-K-Boom Records.

DJ Got Us Falling in Love
On October 10, 2010, a mini album was released by Mud Hut Digital. It contains three covers:

Singles
Tsui has also released seven singles digitally: two original songs under NoodleHouse Records and five covers under Mud House Digital.
 * 2010: "Don't Want an Ending"
 * 2010: "If I Die Young" (The Band Perry cover)
 * 2010: "King of Anything" (Sara Bareilles cover)
 * 2010: "The Only Exception" (Paramore cover featuring Kurt Schneider)
 * 2011: "Imagine" (with AHMIR)
 * 2011: "Hold It Against Me" (Britney Spears cover)
 * 2011: "Start Again"

References to use

 * "Yale Singer's Video Gets 1.5 Million Hits in 5 Days", NBC Connecticut
 * Ellen Show Interview
 * Yale admissions video
 * Time Magazine article and video