Iñigo Pascual, Fil-Am artist AJ Rafael pay tribute to late Filipino music trailblazer Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias
Photos from Iñigo Pascual and Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias’ Instagram accounts
Actor and artist Iñigo Pascual took to Instagram to mourn the sudden passing of his mentor Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, lovingly referred to by him and by the Filipino creative community in California as Ros.
Cobarrubias was a marketing strategist, events and TV producer, MySpace HipHop founder, and a champion of the Filipino community in California, where she was born in 1980 to immigrant Filipino parents.
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“A lot of people that know me, know who Ros was in my life,” Pascual wrote in a post. “At a point in my life, we were a package deal, wherever Ros was, I was also there and vice versa.”
The young actor also praised the late Filipino music trailblazer’s way of touching people’s lives, including his. “The way you spoke about people you believed in, was like no other. You knew how to connect and bring people together for the love of Music. You were one of a kind, Ros.”
Pascual and Cobarrubias worked together on a show called “The Crossover” filmed in Toronto, Canada to promote his second album. Accompanied by Cobarrubias, Pascual performed at the “Taste of Manila Festival” alongside Filipino-American rapper Ruby Ibarra.
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Filipino-American singer-songwriter and video content creator AJ Rafael also took to Instagram to sing a moving tribute to Cobarrubias. In the video, he sang a rendition of the 1983 song by Christopher Cross “Think of Laura.”
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“Hoping to bring comfort through music, something she loved so dearly. Sending love to all who knew and loved @roslynnc,” Rafael wrote in the post.
Cobarrubias always dreamt of becoming a video jockey but was told by a casting agent that she was too small to be on TV. So she tried being a radio jock instead. She went on to start a hip-hop show called “Third Floor Radio,” where she interviewed various up-and-coming and established acts.
She along with her show rose in popularity, thanks in part to her initiative to promote it on the then-new social media platform MySpace. Years later, catching news of how she had utilized the site to spread music, MySpace founders approached her to grow the platform into an online music platform, where artists can share music and connect with fans. Cobarrubias was later promoted to marketing head and led artist relations.
In her work, she also helped give a platform to new Filipino-American artists, through her marketing brand called 1587. She also went on to support and champion Filipino causes including Filipino American heritage nights at basketball games.
