Yunalis binti Mat Zara’ai, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter better known as Yuna, grew up in Malaysia listening to R&B. “So naturally, when I started making music, I combined those two things,” she tells Apple Music. “My stories as a Southeast Asian artist told through R&B.” For her exclusive playlist in honour of AAPI Heritage Month, Yuna focused on songs that put her in a good mood and inspire her creatively. Many of these tracks played an important role in her story as a rising artist. Anggun’s “Snow on the Sahara”, for example, was the first time she felt represented as a Southeast Asian person. “Finally there was someone who looked like me, with my skin colour and hair,” she says. “She made the dream of making music professionally, internally, seem possible.” And “Use Me”, a moody slow jam by her long-time friend Ai.z, represents the courage it takes to reach outside one’s barriers, background and comfort zone. “He came up the ranks with me in the Malaysian music industry and was pigeonholed into making Malay-language music,” she says. “I love that he took the leap to release English songs and break out of the box he was put in. Makes me proud.”