“Whether You Are Struggling Through Addiction, Or You Love Somebody, You’re Not Alone”: Guam Artists TEO JHN and Gilayna Joy on Their Song “Choose Me”
Would you choose me? If you could use me.
Siblings TEO JHN (Matthew John Santos) and Gilayna Joy Santos discussed their process, meaning and impact of their single, “Choose Me” with The Independent. We were lucky enough to get in contact with the artists through a connection made a few years ago at the Guam Pacific Daily News with Joy. Although they have been singing together since they were young, “Choose Me” was the first song they wrote and recorded together. JHN said that making this song with his sister has “meant everything . . . I’ve always wanted to make music, and especially making my first song just like with my sister, it’s pretty special to me.”
Before music became an outlet for JHN, he turned to basketball to “get away from all the ruckus and stuff at the house,” he said. “I think that helped me deal with a lot of my feelings.” Basketball became an escape for JHN, until he turned to music. “It’s not so much of a selfish thing, like how basketball could be, like [how that’s] just for me.”
Creating “Choose Me” was an outlet for JHN, and through this they tell the story of growing up with parents that struggled with addiction.
“I really believe in the power of storytelling and using it as a tool to connect people and to help other people understand their environment,” Joy said.
When asked what he wanted the song to be about, JHN said “I just told them I wanna write about my parents.”
It’s hard to watch a superhero fall.
The Santos’ grew up with four other siblings — Joy being the oldest and JHN being second to youngest. Joy spoke on having to navigate their parents’ addiction growing up.
“When you have a whole family in survival mode, it really hijacks their relationships and their ability to connect with each other.” She said that collaborating on the piece helped them to “sort of see each other in a different way” and connect on a different level. “It’s definitely brought a level of healing, even though it hasn’t solved the issue of grieving through having a parent that’s addicted to drugs.”
The music video for “Choose Me” was released on March 23, 2025. The main character featured in the video is the father figure. The artists felt that by using this independent art form with this angle, they were able to process what they were going through. “[The song] is about [JHN] processing it for himself, and then me processing it for myself as an older sibling and as a mom now,” Joy said.
Creating something that is a testament to your lived experience, that can function as a beacon of reflection and true feeling for your audience, is a powerful capability to have as an artist. There was a lot of positive feedback from listeners on the island to the point where Joy was overflowed with so many messages from the people that surrounded her that shared what “Choose Me” did for them.
“…I didn’t understand until the song came out, how much it resonates with people and just how common it is,” Joy said. Drug abuse has been talked about like a number, and it’s important for Joy to be able to bring back the humanization of the disease. “I’ve gotten a personal peek into, like, the human experience of drug addiction . . . It’s not a statistic anymore.”
Would you choose me? If you could use me.
Unlike Joy, who had majored in musical theatre in college and had previously been making a lot of unreleased music, JHN was introduced to the music industry in a different way. He participated in a songwriting class which was hosted by a local organization on Guam called Project: Inspire. “Choose Me” made such an impression with the organization that Niel Romero, co-founder of Project: Inspire, wanted to make a music video out of it.
The song is not only a story being told or a song to listen to, but it’s also being supported by Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center which is what really “kicked everything off,” Joy said. The artists were able to get funding for their project around substance use and prevention. Although “Choose Me” could mean something different for everybody, the heart of the song lies in the Santos’ desire to allow people going through similar situations to feel seen and heard.
Not only did the Santos’ make a song with a powerful, vulnerable and resonant message, but they were also able to make art that was deeply personal to them by creating it together.
“I enjoyed the whole thing, the whole process, even if it was hard, it was a good experience,” JHN said.
Joy’s favorite part of the process was being able to share “Choose Me” with close friends and family at an intimate screening event before the music video was released.
“We just had, like, a little barbecue and had some family screen the music video. It was a great night . . . just sort of in community with each other and talking very plainly about something like this . . .,” she said.
As the song was about their parents, JHN and Joy didn’t know what to expect when their parents had a listen.
“I was pretty scared of my dad [listening to the song], when I think about it, even my mom,” JHN said. “I don’t wanna feel like we were ratting them out or making them feel like he’s a totally bad person or we’re like dissing him. Because we still love him.”
Speaking to the shared experience of the Santos siblings as well as other members of their community in Guam, it can be difficult to have family matters put on display for the public to witness, especially when it comes to something like substance abuse. Joy said that their song was their way of “reclaiming part of that story for him.” The siblings’ father also introduced them to music, so, in a way, they are repaying him with the gift that he taught them.
“Choose Me” was huge for JHN and Joy, and there’s no doubt they will carry this song with them for the rest of their musical careers. No matter how many times Joy listens to the song, it still impacts her after every listen.
“It still affects me, it could still make me cry and I’ve cried every time I watched the music video,” she said. “Something is very real about it, I don’t know what it is. But, I feel like even if [the song] wasn’t written by us, even if it’s not sung by us, if I was just a kid in the middle of all the crap and the song came out, it would have changed a lot of things for me.”
Joy’s goal with this song is to make people feel seen, the feeling she didn’t have the luxury to have felt while she was growing up.
“There’s a lot of shame and isolation about that experience . . . [but] we’re all sort of just an amalgamation of our choices, and we’re all just humans,” Joy said.
Evidently, there was a lot of heart and pain poured into “Choose Me.” But, despite all the hardships that inspired the song, Joy said it wasn’t only about the hard times. It was also “a lot of love, mixed in with a lot of laughs, mixed in with a lot of good things like you’ll see in the music video.”
After speaking with the artists, it’s evident that the song acted not only as support for their listeners, but as support for them as siblings, too. It brought them closer together, as collaborative art and music can often do. In the words of Joy, “Choose Me” is a reminder that “whether you are struggling through addiction, or you love somebody, you’re not alone.”
No, it wouldn’t be a choice, ‘cause I’d have chosen me.
Regions: Boston