Hawaii-born singer mikah talks about his global rise, release of 'Homesick' trilogy
How mikah turned a “random opportunity” into an international music career
The release of mikah's "Homesick" trilogy wraps up another transformative year for the rising artist, and with big dreams ahead, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Hawaii-born Japanese-American singer mikah has accomplished a lot in his career, from music groups, to competition programs, and solo stardom.
At 16, he moved to Japan, joining an entertainment company that would lead to his debut in the group, Intersection. But prior to that, music wasn’t the path he envisioned for himself.
"I learned how to play ukulele and violin when I was in high school, but I never really thought that I would take music as my profession in the future, so it wasn't until I got this really random opportunity to move to Japan to join a talent agency and then start to train and actually learn how to sing and take it seriously, and that was when I really thought, ‘Okay, this can be my profession and my career path,’" he tells FOX 13.
Even as he was starting his music career, he was still hesitant about what his future would hold.
"At that point in my life, I was contemplating going more towards fashion and not really continuing music and going to a separate college, or transferring colleges and then studying in New York and wanting to do fashion," he explains.
It was in 2021 when he took on an opportunity that would change the trajectory of his career completely, auditioning for and joining China’s largest televised audition program, CHUANG 2021.
His audition for the show, a cover of "Unbreakable Love" by Eric Chou, immediately caught the attention of not just the judges and other contestants, but the world, as mikah was immediately thrust into the spotlight with clips of the audition shared across social media.
He says he didn’t speak Chinese, but learned the song by consistently singing it until he was able to perfect it.
"The audience reacted well to it and I was super shocked because I'd only been to China once for a couple days before that audition. I didn't know that the show would get that big, and I didn't know the audience would react to foreigners like that as well," he says.
The judges and audience not only liked it, but they followed his journey throughout the filming, placing him in the top lineup that led to his debut in the Chinese group, INTO1.
The multi-national group would spend two years together with numerous albums, and once their time together ended, it was time for mikah to take the next step in his career.
"I already wrote my own music before that, so musically I knew my own sound of music already, and I knew how I wanted to be perceived by an audience, what I wanted to write about, and the sound that I want to express myself," he says.
In 2023, he released his first solo EP, bleached.
While the music groups he was in were in the style of traditional pop groups, his solo music took the style of a slower, R&B style, but he says he wasn’t worried about the genre shift for his fans.
"I wasn't worried because I remember when I was in all those groups, I had really strong ideas and opinions towards what kind of music we should do in order for us to have more success. So, because I always had that mindset, even when it came to my solo stuff, I already had a strong opinion of what I should do," mikah says.
In the two years since his solo debut was released, he’s been consistently putting out new music.
In 2025, he worked alongside American music label 88rising with the song "Butterflies," and then released the single "Escape" in October, the first song in a three-song trilogy.
He says the song depicts his life story of being in Hawaii and wanting to escape.
"‘Escape’ is pretty much about that, to the point I left to move to a big city and kind of encountering different obstacles there and realizing that it's not how I dreamed of, and it's actually a lot more lonesome and depressing, which is the song ‘In Between,’" he adds.
On November 18, mikah released the remaining tracks of his Homesick trilogy, including "In Between" and "Dream," packaged into one single album alongside "Escape."
Describing "Dream," mikah says, "It was initially supposed to be about the return aspect of this story, but I never returned back to Hawaii, so it explains how I ended up coping with homesickness and how I've able I was able to fill that hole of being homesick, and how I associate home as not a place anymore, but more with my current lifestyle and the people I surround myself with, the hobbies that I have, and the different ways of me seeking happiness."
The release of his trilogy wraps up another transformative year for the rising artist, and with big dreams ahead, mikah shows no signs of slowing down.
"I hope that I can have more global activity and that I can see my fans that are in different countries more next year. I hope that I can travel a bit more and expand my boundaries next year as well," he concludes.
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