YouTube sensation Boyce Avenue brothers in S'pore

They are the pitch-perfect Puerto Rican-American brothers who have taken YouTube by storm with their acoustic covers of various hits.

Racking up over 30 million hits for their rendition of Rihanna's We Found Love and hitting one billion views on their YouTube channel, it is clear that the trio, Boyce Avenue, have arrived.

Eldest sibling and rhythmist-pianist Daniel Manzano, 35, is called the "prima donna" by the other brothers. Lead vocalist and frontman Alejandro, 27, said: "He can't live without a blow-dryer. He always needs to have one around."

Guitarist Fabian, 29, said: "He takes the longest to get ready and always needs his wine. He's the biggest 'diva' of the three of us."

Apparently, proud of his "title", Daniel did not bother defending himself and joked: "I would prefer the word 'high maintenance'."

HOT FM 91.3 STUDIO

Boyce Avenue were visiting the HOT FM 91.3 studios during the Hot 30 Countdown show with resident jock Charmaine Yee on Wednesday.

They were in town for their first concert here at the Hard Rock Coliseum on Thursday night.

During their 20-minute radio segment, Yee treated the brothers, who are dead ringers for Scottish actor Gerard Butler, to local fare like char kway teow, chicken rice and bandung.

Daniel said of the pink drink: "This tastes really good. It's a bit like strawberry milk."

Worried about the blackened noodle dish, Alejandro asked: "Are there any grasshoppers in here or anything like that?"

But after a bite, they all agreed it tasted "good".

Yee also educated the trio on colloquial terms like "lah" and "super shiok".

As for Boyce Avenue's plans for2014, Alejandro said: "We're planning to release our third album in the summer (between June and September), but definitely an EP a little sooner than that."

Daniel said: "The album will give us a good reason to come back... We'll definitely be back by early 2015."

crobert@sph.com.sg

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.