Legendary Filipino American R&B pioneer passes away

Filipino/Black American artist Sugar Pie Desanto continued to perform well into her 80's.

Filipino/Black American R&B singer Sugar pie DeSanto died at the age of 89 on Dec. 20, 2024. The legendary performer paved the way for Black Filipino American performers H.E.R. and Saweetie.

Views From the Edge first wrote about R&B singer Sugar Pie DeSanto in 2017, giddy with my admittedly late "discovery" of a bit of Filipino American history.

Back then, the music pioneer was known only to hard core music fans but she was already a legend in the R&B genre. Later, in 2020, she was still performing. She showed up at a San Francisco music festival and dang, if she didn't do her trademark sommersault at the age of 85.

FYI: Read what others have said about Sugar Pie DeSanto: NY Times, SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, AsAmNews

SF Gate described her performance this way:

"DeSanto, who stood a petite 4 feet 11 inches and performed into her eighties, loved to shock audiences by selecting a large, handsome fellow out of the audience as a prop for her signature feat. Without warning, she would climb on the man, wrap her legs around his waist, and dangle upside down. Once, she took this acrobatic display even further, draping her legs around a man’s neck. Recalling this moment with laughter, she said, 'I told him, don’t drop me. If you do, you’re in trouble!'”

Still sassy after all these years.

“My sister was one of a kind and you will never see anyone like her again,” wrote Domingo Balinton, her brother, in a Facebook post that noted that DeSanto died in her sleep. “She was full of energy and commanded respect when she walked on stage as well as in life. I am truly going to miss her.”

During her lifetime, she performed with other music legends such as Etta James and James Brown. The latter, nown for his own dance moves, jokingly asked her to tone down her performance because she might overshadow his own act.

Her brother writes that she died in her sleep in her home in Oakland, California. 

DeSanto was born Umpeylia Balinton in Brooklyn, New York to a Black mother and Filipino father in 1935. The family moved to San Francisco’s post-WWII Fillmore District as a child. She was the oldest girl of 10 siblings.

DeSanto's mixed racial heritage is due to the anti-miscegenation laws that were prevalent up to the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision rendered in 1967. Until then, the anti-misegenation laws banned marriages between Whites and people of color. However, most of the racist laws did not prevent the marriages between Native Americans, Blacks and Asians.

In recent years, Black and Filipino personalities have become more prominent and pay homage to their mixed racial roots. Among the artists who may have benefitted from the door-opening by DeSanto are R&B artist H.E.R. (also known as Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) and rappers Saweetie and Guap, all of whom were raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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