Reese Lansangan Filipino Singer Born in 1990

Early life

Maria Therese Lansangan, known as Reese, was born on 16 October 1990. She graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in information design. In 2013 she was accepted to the Elements National Music Camp, a training programme where she was mentored by established Filipino musicians including Ryan Cayabyab, Joey Ayala and Noel Cabangon.

Career

Lansangan works as a singer and songwriter, and she is also described as a visual artist, graphic designer and fashion designer. Her debut album, Arigato, Internet!, was launched on 6 December 2015 at Green Sun in Makati. The record has eleven songs, which she wrote and produced herself with help from friends, and she described it as a way of thanking the internet. A limited-edition reissue, called the Domo Arigato Edition, was announced a year later, adding seven bonus songs recorded with other local artists. The reissue was launched on 12 February 2017 at A Space in Makati.

On 30 April 2017 she surprised listeners with a four-track EP, Of Sound Mind & Memory, which she described as a deeply personal reflection on life and the human condition. In the same year she took part in the first season of Coke Studio PH, where she was paired with the band Franco. Each act performed one song from the other's catalogue in their own arrangement, and the two wrote one entirely new song together.

On 23 August 2018 she opened for the band Paramore in Manila, during the group's Tour Four visit to the Philippine capital, playing with her guitarist Josh Villena. Lansangan is also one half of the indie duo Reese and Vica.

Her second EP, Playing Pretend in the Interim (2020), has five tracks. She wrote it as an experiment in which each song takes a different voice or character, among them an encyclopedia salesman, a celebrity from the past and a ghost. She has said the songs combine research, imagination, borrowed stories and things she witnessed herself. A full-length album, Time Well Spent, followed in 2021.

Lansangan has written outside music as well. In 2016 she co-wrote the poetry book In Case You Come Back with Marla Miniano and Jamie Catt. The same three authors released a second book, The Maps That Contain Us, in September 2017, which mixes poetry and flash fiction. The first book collects short pieces on love, family, adventures, childhood, insecurities and quirks.

Public roles

Books and reading are a stated influence on Lansangan's work, and she has turned this into a small public project. During a holiday in the United States in 2015 she started leaving copies of her album hidden inside books for strangers to find, and she tagged the practice #ArigatoInternetHunt. In 2017 she made the tradition an official promotion event in partnership with the Philippine bookstore chain Fully Booked, which she has called her favourite bookstore.

Recognition

Her YouTube channel had about 212,000 subscribers as of May 2025.

Personal life

Lansangan has no marriage or children on record.