Amanda Pascali is the rising voice of America’s most ethnically diverse generation. A first-generation American singer-songwriter, Pascali writes music rooted in her family’s immigrant experience, weaving stories of identity, displacement, and resilience. Her signature sound—Immigrant American Folk—blends folk/Americana with Mediterranean, Balkan, and Latin rhythms to tell powerful tales of being “too foreign for here, too foreign for home, and never enough for both.”

After her songs went viral on social media, she built a global following, leading to her most anticipated release yet: Roses and Basil (June 2025), a bilingual album of original songs and Sicilian-English translations produced by Robert Ellis.

Born in New York City and based in Texas, Pascali has performed across the world—from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to the European Union Parliament in Brussels. Her song “Over the Sea” opens the 2024 Italian film Indelebile (Family First), and she was named “Musician of the Year” by the Houston Chronicle in 2021.

As a Fulbright Fellow backed by both the U.S. State Department and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pascali launched the first full-scale initiative to revive and translate traditional Sicilian folk songs. In 2024, she partnered with the U.S. Embassy in Italy to open Sicily’s first “American Space,” where she led masterclasses on music and translation.

Pascali draws inspiration from her parents’ stories—her father, exiled for standing up to his government, and her mother, who built a life from nothing in 1980s Brooklyn. Her work has been recognized by the Kerrville Folk Festival, Houston Arts Alliance, the Calandra Institute, Lions Club International, and more. She is currently a Mid-America Arts Alliance Interchange Fellow, Fulbright Ambassador, and board member of the music-activism nonprofit, Music to Life.