I asked some of my kids if they knew that recording artist H.E.R. (Gabi Wilson) was half Filipino, and they already knew that. It seems the last person to know in our family was me! In this interview at a Kabayan Authentic, a Filipino Restaurant in Queens, she talks about her Filipino side, cooks and helps out in the kitchen, and introduces the host to Filipino food.
I only knew about H.E.R. from her songs on the radio, like her Grammy winning song “Best Part” included below. In addition to not knowing that she was half Filipino, I also didn’t know that she was incredibly precocious, publishing a book of poetry at age 8 and performing an Alicia Keys song and playing piano at the same time on the Today show at age 10. Wow.
H.E.R. is from Vallejo in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has a lot of Filipinos there, so many in fact that Rapper and Vallejo native E-40 has funded a business that sells lumpia, which he says is one of his favorite foods. You can see H.E.R. and her mom when H.E.R. performed at a Mother’s Day tribute. Check out the interview above, it’s both interesting and might make you hungry.
(h/t: Angry Asian Man)
