Sam Tsui
Samuel Tsui (born May 2, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter and video producer. He rose to fame as an internet celebrity known for doing covers and musical medleys of songs by pop artists. He has since released original songs and expanded to mashups.
Also recorded as Samuel Tsui
Sam Tsui

Didit Putra · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Sam Tsui
- Birth Name
- Samuel Tsui
- Born
- 2 May 1989
- Birthplace
- Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
- Education
- Yale University (BA)
- Occupation
- Singer-songwriter, producer
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- soul
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Samuel Tsui (born May 2, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter and video producer. He rose to fame as an internet celebrity known for doing covers and musical medleys of songs by pop artists. He has since released original songs and expanded to mashups.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Sam Tsui. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q983689 · wikipedia · Sam Tsui
In this article
Biography
Biography
Tsui worked across singer, YouTuber, pianist, composer and songwriter and 3 further recorded occupations. The registers place that work in soul. This article rests on 99 catalogued compositions, 1 published texts, 93 issued recordings, 1 digitised documents and 5 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Sam Tsui • Birth Name — Samuel Tsui • Born — 2 May 1989 • Birthplace — Blue Bell, Pennsylvania • Education — Yale University (BA) • Occupation — Singer-songwriter, producer • Children — Elaia Tsui-Breves
Early life and education
Early life and education
Tsui was born on May 2, 1989. His father was from Hong Kong and of Cantonese descent, while his mother is an American from Iowa. He has one brother. He grew up in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, a street away from Kurt Schneider, his producer and accompanist, with whom he attended Wissahickon High School. Tsui attended weekend Chinese school as a child and can speak some Cantonese. Tsui attended Yale University, where he was a member of Davenport College and The Duke's Men of Yale, an all-male acappella group. He graduated from Yale with a major in Classics (Greek) in 2011.
2009–2010: Career beginnings
2009–2010: Career beginnings
Tsui appeared on ABC World News on October 28, 2009, singing The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There". He went on to perform on The Bonnie Hunt Show in November of the same year, where he was interviewed and performed Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". He also appeared on It's On with Alexa Chung, singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for the cast of American television series Glee. Kurt Schneider produced the musical web series College Musical, a parody of the High School Musical film series, in fall of 2008. Four episodes were released, with Tsui playing the lead role of Cooper. Following the popularity of the series, it was announced that a film would be made based on the series. College Musical: The Movie premiered online in September 2014. 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. On February 22, 2010, Tsui appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with his producer Kurt Schneider. The two were interviewed, and Tsui performed his medley of Michael Jackson songs. In November 2010, Tsui collaborated with fellow YouTube singer Christina Grimmie, singing "Just a Dream", which is the most viewed video on the YouTube channel "KurtHugoSchneider", with more than 200 million views. 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.
2011–2012: YouTube and rise in popularity
2011–2012: YouTube and rise in popularity
In 2011, Tsui debuted his own YouTube channel, apart from his collaboration with Kurt Schneider. On February 3, 2011, Tsui was featured on Britney Spears' official website, along with his cover of "Hold It Against Me". In March 2011, lyrics from Tsui's song "Start Again" was featured in the novel Seeker by Andy Frankham-Allen. Tsui was mentioned three times by Tom Hanks when he addressed the Yale class of 2011. Tsui was also featured in the 2010 Yale Admissions video. The video, entitled "That's Why I Chose Yale", reveals information about the college with students and admission officers breaking out into song across the campus. In 2017, he co-starred in a new admissions video entitled "That's Why I Toured Yale". In fall 2011, Tsui was a digital correspondent for the third season of NBC's a capella competition show, The Sing-Off. He recorded a "Judges Medley" that included Sara Bareilles' "Love Song", Ben Folds' "Gone" and Shawn Stockman's (Boyz II Men) "On Bended Knee".
2013–present: Album, tours, future projects
2013–present: Album, tours, future projects
Tsui released his first full-length original album, Make It Up, in May 2013 after a raising more than $64,000 through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The project was produced by Kurt Schneider. In summer 2013, Tsui and Schneider toured across Canada and the US with Alex Goot, Against the Current, Landon Austin, Luke Conard, and King the Kid. Tsui continues to make covers of popular music on his YouTube channel while also collaborating with other YouTubers. In September 2013, Sam published a duet with Elle Winter entitled "Unsinkable (Music Is Medicine)" online. The proceeds of the single went towards pediatric cancer research as a part of the Music Is Medicine's Donate a Song project. Tsui's vocals were featured in a promotional video for Coca-Cola that premiered on January 14, 2014. In 2013, Kurt Hugo Schneider and Coca-Cola teamed up to create music videos featuring creative covers of two 2011 hits namely Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close" and Of Monsters and Men's "Little Talks" for a campaign called "The Sounds of AHH". The commercial edits of both premiered on the inaugural episode of season 13 of American Idol on January 14, 2014, on FOX with "Feel So Close" featuring the vocals of Tsui whereas Schneider makes music playing only Coca-Cola bottles, glasses and cans. In 2016, Tsui starred in an episode of Bones as collegiate acappella singing group member Jake Eisenberg. In 2021, on the tenth anniversary of his and Grimmie's release of their "Just a Dream" cover with Schneider, Sam and Kurt rerecorded their parts of the song while keeping Christina's original portion in memory of her murder in 2016. The song was noticeably sadder in tone and included a clip from an interview of Christina in the opening and a clip of her closing one of her old videos with a thank you at the end. The duo performed the reimagined version at a benefit concert for the Christina Grimmie Foundation on June 15, 2021.
Personal life
Personal life
On April 15, 2016, Tsui posted a coming out video on his YouTube channel in which he announced that he is gay and in a long-term relationship with fellow musician and collaborator Casey Breves. They met while they were both at Yale (Tsui a freshman and Breves a junior) and were both part of an a cappella group on campus. The couple got married on April 16, 2016. They have adopted a daughter, named Elaia.
Television
Television
• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2016 — Bones — Jake Eisenberg — Guest Cast (The Strike in the Chord; Season 11 Ep.16)
Life and work
Life and work
Sam Tsui was born on 2 May 1989 in Blue Bell. Tsui held the nationality of United States. Tsui was educated at Yale University, which Tsui left in 2011, Wissahickon High School and Davenport College. Married to: Casey Breves. Tsui worked as singer, YouTuber, pianist and composer, and the authority record catalogues a further 4 occupations under the same name, among them songwriter, recording artist, television producer and actor. Tsui was active from 2008. The fields Tsui worked in include soul. Tsui played the piano and the voice.
Catalogued output
Compositions
The entries below are works composed by the subject, as the institutional registers catalogue them; later performances and commercial recordings of the same music are listed separately. 99 further compositions are catalogued under Tsui's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it. A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I Hate U, I Love U. All I Want for Christmas Is You. Look What You Made Me Do. I Knew You Were Trouble. Hold It Against Me.
The entries follow MusicBrainz
Someone Like You
DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
If I Die Young
Moves Like Jagger
Steal My Girl
All Time Low
Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)
Lose You to Love Me
Perfect. …Baby One More Time
Just Give Me a Reason
Hey, Soul Sister
The complete catalogue · 36
The entries follow MusicBrainz
Someone Like You
DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
If I Die Young
Moves Like Jagger
Steal My Girl
All Time Low
Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)
Lose You to Love Me
Perfect. …Baby One More Time
Just Give Me a Reason
Hey, Soul Sister
Don’t Stop Believin’
Just a Dream
Man in the Mirror
Jar of Hearts
Best Song Ever
Somebody That I Used to Know
Beneath Your Beautiful
Drag Me Down
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Rolling in the Deep
Live While We’re Young
Born This Way
I’ll Be There
Call Me Maybe
Stay With Me
I Don’t Wanna Live Forever
Beauty and the Beast
Same Old Love
King of Anything
Life of the Party
Scared to Be Lonely
Story of My Life
Let It Be
Nothin’ on You
Primary material
Recordings and discography
The discography assembled here shows how Tsui's work has been published in sound, not what Tsui made. 93 sound issues are catalogued, carrying dates from 2010 to 2023. An issue is a published recording, distinct from the composition it carries, from a printed score of that composition and from any single performance of it; none of the entries below is counted in the catalogue of compositions above, and several of them carry the same work in different readings. The 2010s are the densest decade of publication, with 91 issues. The performers and issuing labels are as the discographic register states them; where it names no performer the article names none.
We Found Love
2011
Lean On / Lean on Me
2015
Photograph
2015
Heart Attack
2013
Piece By Piece
2016
The Mashups
2023
Closer
2016
Wake Me Up (Acoustic)
2013
Pompeii
2014
King of Anything, dated 2010. #Selfie
2014
Locked Out of Heaven Mash Up
2012
Don't Want an Ending
2010
Roses
2016
Mirrors
2013
Sweet Creature
2017
Wrecking Ball
2013
Love Yourself
2015
Domino
2012
Here Without You
2014
Safe and Sound
2012
Hello
2015
22
2013
We Are Young
2012
Wide Awake
2012
Little Things
2012
Locked Away
2015
Send My Love
2016
Start Again
2011
Something Just Like This
2017
That’s What I Like (acoustic)
2017
Bad Blood (a cappella)
2015
Bohemian Rhapsody
2015
This Promise
2016
Treat You Better
2016
Try
2013
What Makes You Beautiful
2012
Clarity
2013
Chandelier
2014
Thinking Out Loud / I’m Not the Only One, dated 2015. … Baby One More Time
2017
Stronger
2012
Make It Up
2013
Wildfire
2014
Maps
2014
Somebody That I Used to Know (a cappella)
2012
Only Exception
2010
Titanium
2012
Skyfall
2012
I Don't Wanna Live Forever (Acoustic)
2017
Hold It Against Me
2011
Yearbook
2020
Mercy
2017
Keep You Warm
2016
Sugar
2015
Bad Things
2016
Time After Time
2015
Me Without You
2013
Trust
2018
The Covers
2010
Take Me To Church
2015
I Knew You Were Trouble
2012
A further 13 recorded entries stand behind this article and are held on the record.
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q983689: Sam Tsui
Unverified · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Sam Tsui”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards and nominations
• Year — Award — Category — Recipient — Result • 2015 — Dahsyatnya Awards — Outstanding Guest Star — Himself (shared with Kurt Hugo Schneider) • The Shorty Awards — Best YouTube Musician — Himself • Teen Choice Awards — Choice Web Star: Music — Himself • 2020 — The Shorty Awards — Best YouTube Musician — Himself
Authority records
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q983689: Sam TsuiWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,832 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Sam SneedPerson
- Sam SparroPerson
- Sam SpencePerson
- Sam TheardPerson
- Sam WinansPerson
- Sam WitwerPerson
- Sam WoodingPerson
- Sam WoodyardPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Sam Tsui?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.