A post shared by Alex Aiono (@alexaiono) on Apr 3, 2017 at 8:09pm PDT

Isa sa mga lehitimong YouTube superstar si Alex Aiono. Mayroon siyang 4.6 million subscribers at may pinagsamang mahigit 500 million views ang kanyang mga videos.

Bumisita kamakailan si Aiono sa Pilipinas para sa kanyang unang concert sa bansa bilang main attraction ng Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival sa Pampanga.

Matapos ang concert, tuwang-tuwa si Aiono sa mainit na pagtanggap ng Pinoy fans.

"I've been online and you know interacting with Filipino fans for years. And I did a cover, I think it was last year, and I inserted a couple of Tagalog words and they went crazy. ...Having that connection in person, it's amazing," ani ni Aiono.

YouTube ang naging paraan niya noon para maipamalas ang kanyang talento. Hindi umano niya pinangarap na maging YouTube star. Ang gusto lang niya ay kumanta at tumugtog.

"When I moved to Los Angeles, I was introduced to social media and the importance of building fans via it cause you can build them worldwide. ...So when I started my YouTube channel, I was just wanted to start building up the fans but I had no idea that would be my route into this traditional mindset of getting signed and touring," dagdag niya.

Ang unang mga videos ni Aiono ay halo-halo tulad ng basketball trick shots at vlogging.

Pero sa paggawa ng music covers siya pumatok sa fans. "I just did it differently. I wanted to have people view covers more as a way of people expressing themselves. Not just you know singing a popular song cause it's popular."

Para kay Aiono, pinakaimportanteng bahagi ng paggawa ng videos para sa Youtube ang instant connection sa fans sa comments section ng videos. "These days it's so important that you trust your fans, you love them and you give them attention and talk to them cause they can literally make it or break it for you. ...That's something more meaningful than any form of success --it's building people who will believe in you."

Aminado si Aiono na mahirap balansehin ang oras niya lalo't isa na siyang mainstream pop star na may major record label deal at promotion. Pero importante pa rin sa kanya ng ipagpatuloy ang paggawa ng YouTube videos para laging connected sa fans.

Ano payo niya sa mga kabataan na gustong maging YouTube star kagaya niya?

"If you're gonna do it just to be big, don't do it. Because it takes so much more than just being in an interview and having fun and like getting millions of fans."

"It's a lot of hard work. It wasn't always fun and I always wanted to quit. But the whole time that I did that wasn't cause I wanted to be famous. I had a goal in my mind that to get to certain level of platform so I could share myself with the whole world. It was about being to share a gift that God gave me with anybody who wanted to listen to it - and that's really all it was to me."

A post shared by Alex Aiono (@alexaiono) on Apr 10, 2017 at 1:09pm PDT

Sa kanyang pag-alis, hangad ni Aiono na nakapag-iwan siya ng tatak at inspirasyon sa mga kabataan na nais sumunod sa yapak niya. --Ulat ni TJ Manotoc, ABS-CBN News