A woman watched intently, her breath suspended as she witnessed the remarkable musical talent pouring out of two girls gathered a couple feet away. Sitting on a picnic blanket with a guitar balanced in her lap, Jasmine Estreba accompanied her cousin’s beautiful voice, blending seamlessly in an original arrangement of “Glitter ” by BENEE and “Backyard Boy” by Claire Rosinkranz. As their performance drew to an end, the woman approached the cousins enthusiastically, encouraging them to share their talent online. Motivated by the encounter, Jasmine made a TikTok account and has gone viral multiple times. A couple months and many TikToks later, her mom’s nursing job moved the family from Modesto to Larkspur, bringing Jasmine’s musical gifts to Redwood. 

Since she started posting on her TikTok in January 2021, Jasmine’s music has gathered attention from many professionals in the music industry. In fact, an original song she wrote, “rollercoaster,” received almost one million views on the platform. After the video went viral, Jasmine received many texts and emails from professionals in the music industry offering to take her on as a client. 

“It was my fourth video, something very early. I wrote [“rollercoaster”] within thirty minutes. It was the week of Valentine’s Day,” Jasmine said. 

Jasmine began songwriting at the age of 10 and challenges herself to write every day. Over the last six years, Jasmine approximates that she’s written about 70 songs in total. 

Her talent and ambition impressed a Los Angeles music manager, Arnand Troy, to the point that he recruited her as a client. Through his management, she has been able to collaborate with another up-and-coming artist, Jensen Mcrae. 

“We got to write a song together. [Mcrae] studied at USC, and she was giving me so many tips about music and writing,” Jasmine said. “If anything came from [“rollercoaster”], it was the opportunities that I get to [learn] about 

music.”

Over the last decade, Jasmine has learned seven different instruments, including cello, electric bass, upright bass, percussion, ukulele, guitar and piano. Aside from her vast mastery of instruments, what separates Jasmine the most from other musicians is her song-writing aptitude. 

James Estreba, Jasmine’s twenty-two year old brother and one of her biggest supporters, shares her musical talent and has co-written almost 20 songs with her. She values her brother as a huge inspiration to continue songwriting and developing as an artist. 

“What really … made me start writing was my brother. … He was just about to leave for college, and he was the only person that I had grown up with, so the first song I ever wrote was about him leaving,” Jasmine said.

James feels that music has strengthened their relationship despite the six-year age gap. 

“We used to fight a lot,” James said. “Once I came into sixth grade, my sister was in first grade, and that’s when I started playing piano and she started singing. I would accompany her for all of her talent shows, and we used to perform at coffee shops together in Modesto.”

Due to their strong relationship, Jasmine chose James to be the executive producer and co-songwriter on her music management team that she’s building, along with manager Armand Troy and producer Tim Suby, whose notable works include “Monopoly” by Ariana Grande and “Coffee Bean” by Travis Scott. 

Jasmine’s long-time best friend, Lucille Lacuna, was not surprised by the positive reaction to Jasmine’s music.

“She just has the personality of someone that would get famous,” Lacuna said. “She’s very bold and outgoing and not afraid to express herself through music or speech.”  

Over the next couple months, Jasmine will develop an Extended Play (EP), a musical recording slightly shorter than a full album, with the help of her brother, producer and manager. 

“I listen to a lot of folk and pop music. A lot of my songs have just been me and the guitar. But for this EP I’m trying to break out of that. I don’t want it to just be me and the guitar. I think I can do more than that,” she said. 

Her Tik Tok can be found @jjasminemae, and “rollercoaster” is streaming on Spotify and Apple Music now. Stay tuned for her upcoming EP.