What if, instead of lusting after Stacy’s mom, you wanted to date Stacy’s brother? That was the question that singer Mad Tsai asked himself while writing his 2022 single “Stacy’s Brother,” a reinterpretation of the 2003 Fountains of Wayne hit. Thanks to its clever plot-twist lyrics, the song went viral last fall, along with a cinematic music video that acts as a queer teen fantasy, ending with Tsai and his new lover making out in the abandoned band room.
Coming from the 21-year-old Taiwanese and part-Peruvian artist born Jonathan Tsai, the song and video felt like a total subversion from the typical depictions of the American high school experience, with listeners immediately latching onto Tsai’s pithy storytelling that he translates into fun hooks.
Gaining over a million listeners in the past three years, Tsai has emerged as a Gen-Z icon who’s reimagining a world where queer Asian and Latinx boys can become the main characters of their own stories. Writing all his songs so far by himself, including his breakthrough single “boy bi” and his debut EP homecoming!, he has forged his own kind of independent pop stardom based on humor, sincerity, and a will to break the status quo.
He also comes up with concepts for all his detailed narrative music videos, many of which unpack the horrors and disillusionment of high school — all through his earnest and self-deprecating bedroom pop melodies. His early success has already led him to create an original song, “Here Comes the Bride,” for last year’s Sony thriller, The Invitation. All the while, he’s been pursuing a major in Music Industry and History at UCLA, where he will graduate this June.