Who Is Mikey Bustos? New Details On The YouTuber Who Just Came Out As Bisexual (And Revealed He's Dating His Manager!)
YouTuber Mikey Bustos and his manager have announced that they are in love.
Instagram A popular Canadian YouTuber and musician has come out and his fans and family are so happy for him. Mikey Bustos, a Filipino Canadian singer and comic announced to fans that he is bisexual and in a romantic relationship with his long-time manager RJ Garcia. The couple shared their relationship status in a series of social media posts and a YouTube video in recent weeks. Bustos first gained attention for his performances on Canadian Idol in 2003, before moving to Manilla and becoming a YouTube sensation for his comedy videos. His YouTube channels have close to a million subscribers combined. Who is Mikey Bustos? Read on for more details.
1. Early life
Michael John Tumanguil Pestano Bustos was born in 1981 in Toronto and grew up in Canada. He attended St. Michael's College School. Eventually, he relocated to Manilla where he pursued his performing career.
Bustos and Garcia.
2. Canadian Idol
In 2003, Bustos competed on Canadian Idol and he was an early favorite to win the competition. At the time, Chart magazine predicted: "If we were to lay our bets today, ChartAttack’s money would be on Toronto contestant Mikey Bustos, a slightly strange-looking young man with a shaved head and the voice of an angel.” He went on to finish seventh which allowed him to be part of the follow-up record, which sold over 60,000 copies. He then performed around Canada.
Bustos on Canadian Idol.
3. Post Idol
After his Canadian Idol stint, Bustos continued performing as well as writing music. He released his debut EP in 2005, called Love Me Again. He opened for the Pussycat Dolls and Christina Aguilera before releasing his first solo album, Memoirs of a Superhero, on December 23, 2008. In 2009, "If It Feels Good Then We Should" reached the Top 20 for multiple weeks on Canadian mainstream radio. In 2010, he was nominated for a Toronto Independent Music Award for Best Adult Contemporary category. He gained further fame making music and comedy videos on YouTube and now has hundreds of thousands of followers who tune in for his entertainment and travel videos.
Bustos continues to record music.
4. Ants
In an odd departure, Bustos is also an insect enthusiast. On his blogging channel, he described himself as a biology geek and said he likes keeping ants. He started a site and channel called AntsCanada, where he says “We believe ants are the most amazing creatures on the planet, and every new discovery about their micro world gives us some profound insights into the world around us and ourselves. Bringing the ant farm and love of ant keeping to a whole new level, we are dedicated to show the world the joys of keeping big and healthy pet ant colonies. Shipping worldwide since 2009, we are innovators of ant keeping products for ant lovers and museums alike”. He has his own personal ant colonies including yellow crazy ants, black crazy ants, and fire ants.
5. Coming out
On April 21, Bustos came out to his fans with a photo of himself in a rainbow sundress and a pride flag emoji in the caption. He also revealed that he is romantically involved with his manager RJ Garcia. In a video a few days later, the pair explained that they each identify as bisexual. They explained that the reason they waited so long to come out was the conservatism of the Philippines and clauses in their contracts, saying: “So RJ and I, we've been so blessed throughout our career to be the face of many brands, many services, many advocacies and a lot of these contracts have the 'wholesome clause’….So for the longest time, RJ and I were afraid to break our contract because it was our source of income and it was our bread and butter.” They went on to say, “And now, basically, we were just tired of hiding. It's gone to the point where we don't care if it affects my career. And we've chosen happiness over money.”
Bustos’ fans have been positive about the news and he thanked them in a series of tweets, saying “Life is sweet! Thank you for the outpouring of love, guys. @Appleboyrj and I see all your messages and never in our wildest dreams would have imagined the amount of support coming in from all corners of cyberspace, media, and the world! Figuring out how to navigate life in -the most authentic and positive way has been such a long +37 yr journey for me, and at this moment, I feel I've reached some kind of karmic jackpot! It's 2019 (as my dad put it when I came out to him a few weeks ago), and a great time to be alive LGBT.”
Fans are happy for Bustos and Garcia.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.