Andrew Gunadie (better known as gunnarolla on

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; born February 7, 1986) is a Canadian

internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, and

video producer Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

. He is best known for "Canadian, Please", a music video in which he co-starred and co-produced with Julia Bentley. Collectively, his YouTube videos have surpassed 10 million views. In 2013, he won the Digi Award for Online Personality of the Year.

Early life and career

Gunadie was born on February 7 and raised in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

. He obtained a BA (Honours) in Media, Information & Technoculture at Western University, and a diploma in Television Broadcasting at

Fanshawe College Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology, commonly shortened to Fanshawe College, is a public college in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. One of the largest colleges in Canada, it has campuses in London, Simcoe, St. Thomas and Woodstock w ...

. Gunadie has worked in post-production on several Canadian television productions, and he was also the Senior Coordinator, Multimedia Content for

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"Canadian, Please" and issues of racism

Gunadie gained popularity on YouTube with the release of "Canadian, Please", a song and music video that he co-produced with Julia Bentley, and released just before

Canada Day Canada Day (french: Fête du Canada), formerly known as Dominion Day (french: Fête du Dominion), is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 18 ...

in 2009. In the video, the pair sing about all the reasons why one would want to be Canadian, while wearing traditional

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

jackets. The video went viral soon after its release, and has surpassed 5 million views. On December 20, 2009, Gunadie and Bentley performed the song live at the

Olympic Torch Relay The Olympic torch relay is the ceremonial relaying of the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, to the site of an Olympic Games. It was first performed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and has taken place prior to every Games since. Although in the pa ...

Niagara Falls, Ontario Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is on the western bank of the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, with a population of 88,071 at the 2016 census. It is part of the St. Catharines - Niagara Census M ...

. Gunadie received many

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

comments and threats, due to the fact that he is of visibly Asian descent. Many viewers felt that he was not an adequate representative of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, despite the fact that he was born, raised, and continues to live therein. As a response to the criticism, Gunadie produced a video entitled "He'll Never Be a Real Canadian". Issues of

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

s have since become a theme in Gunadie's work. His experience with racism was featured on a segment of "Online Uncovered" on CBC's Connect with Mark Kelley. "Canadian, Please" was later featured in the YouTube video "Canadian Dances Moves" which also went viral.

Team Andrew

Early in 2010, Gunadie teamed up with fellow musician and

Internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

Andrew Huang to produce videos and music, and series such as We Are What You Tweet and New State Plates. The pair have toured

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

together, and are commonly referred to as "Team Andrew".

"The Comic Sans Song"

While on tour in Australia, Gunadie began production on the music video for "The

Comic Sans Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other cas ...

Song" which is part of Gunadie's #22songs series and features a rap by Huang. The majority of the video is set in

Hosier Lane Hosier Lane is a laneway in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Located on the CBD's southern edge, it extends between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and opens opposite the Atrium at Federation Square. Sinc ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, and features Gunadie and a group of Australian fans. The music video was released on May 22, 2012 and gained popularity thanks in part to being featured on

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, Clients from Hell,

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Blog,

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, and even Ban Comic Sans.

Dreamz

Early in 2013, Gunadie and Huang teamed up again to form an electro-pop music duo called Dreamz. They entered CBC Music's Searchlight contest under this new name. Their debut single "Come On" was selected as CBC Here and Now's Song of the Week on March 11, 2013, and was played on

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...

all that week. They made it as far as the Top 16 of CBC Music's Searchlight contest, representing Toronto.

''Like/Comment/Subscribe'' live show

Outside of YouTube, Gunadie has teamed up with fellow

YouTube personality A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

Andrew Bravener to produce and host Like/Comment/Subscribe; a live, interactive show that features screenings and performances. According to Gunadie, the goal of the show "wasn’t to make the big videos bigger. We went into the community to find those hidden gems: rants, confessions, re-cuts, mashups, lip-syncs & even that ‘weird’ part of YouTube." They premiered the show on Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 7pm to 7am at

TIFF Bell Lightbox TIFF Bell Lightbox is a cultural centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the first five floors of the Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower on the north west corner of King Street and John Street. TIFF Bell Lightbox features five cinemas, two ...

during Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012. Their hashtag #YTTO trended on Twitter that night. They later presented the show at PHI Centre on Saturday, March 2, 2013 for Montréal en lumière 2013 and presented a special edition of the show at the 2013

North by Northeast North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival's main focus is live music, but it also includes an eSports gaming tournament, comedy, a conversations series, a flea mark ...

festival in Toronto. Gunadie and Bravener also hosted the 2012 Digi Awards alongside French-Canadian host and producer

Anne-Marie Withenshaw Anne-Marie Withenshaw is a Canadian television and radio personality, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Career Withenshaw graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Arts & Science in Communications Studies. She started working on Much ...

, and YouTube personality

Harley Morenstein Harley Morenstein (born July 20, 1985) is a Canadian actor, Internet personality, and vlogger. He co-created, produces, and hosts the YouTube show Epic Meal Time and its FYI television spin-off series Epic Meal Empire. He also runs a vlog chan ...

(of

Epic Meal Time ''Epic Meal Time'' is a Canadian YouTube cooking show known for creating extremely high-calorie meals, generally out of meat products (with particular emphasis on bacon) and including alcohol (especially Jack Daniel's). It debuted in Octobe ...

). Along with Andrew Bravener, he presented "Cringeworthy!", a variation of the "Like/Comment/Subscribe" show, at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2014.

Late 2013-present

Gunadie hosted various screenings and made appearances at Buffer Festival in Toronto. He also served as YouTube correspondent for CBC's Searchlight competition, wherein he hosted a series called "Searchlight Spotlight". In March 2014, his EP titled "S*X" peaked at #1 on the comedy chart of

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Canada.

Discography

References

External links

gunnarolla's YouTube channel
{{Authority control Canadian pop musicians University of Western Ontario alumni Canadian YouTubers Music YouTubers 1986 births Comedy YouTubers Living people