‘Taya guine negative’ at SoMe Awards as Zori Talks wins big

PODCASTERS and comedians Zori Talks — the trio of Lucio Aldan, Jesse Ogo and Ali Ogo — walked away with the Content Creator of the Year honor at the 2nd SoMe Awards at the Saipan World Resort on Saturday. They also won the Best Podcast Award.

Content Creator of the Year is the most prestigious award at the SoMe Awards, which is the Marianas’ only award ceremony for social media content creators.

It is organized by PalmTrio670, a local online comedy group that consists of Lloyd Lely, Louvicki Camacho and Jefferson Mateo. The evening was hosted by Guam comedian Gene Castro, who is better known for his Guam Funny Memes Instagram account.

In addition to receiving the most votes in the category, PalmTrio670 used community engagement and social media metrics to determine Zori Talks’ eligibility for the award. Their famous Chamorro catchphrase is “taya guine negative,” which means “no negative here.”

On awards night, Saipan World Resort’s Royal Taga Hall was filled with makeup artists, musicians, podcasters, comedians, and others who leverage social media videos on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.

Zori Talks gained online fame for their comedic skits and podcast episodes.

Jesse Ogo said their social media success was dedicated to Primitiva Torres, their mother, who recently passed away. He added that Feb. 1 was the final night of their family’s rosary in her honor, and the trio almost skipped the ceremony to be with family.

But “positive vibes don’t pop out of nowhere,” Jesse Ogo said. “This is something that needs to be shared. I feel like the more people we touch and they touch another person and then all of a sudden the tides start turning and everybody starts helping each other — we learned that from our mom,” he added.

He said she told them, “you’ve got to open up your heart and understand” others even when they argue.

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Jesse Ogo said. “We’ll put out positive vibes … to our queen. This one is for mom.”

Ali Ogo said the other social media content creators at the awards night “motivate us to be better” for the wider community. “I’m a teacher at Kagman High. I see these kids and they’re literally watching each and every one of you,” he said. “You guys are famous, I don’t know if you know that, but these kids look up to you. These are [the] reasons why we push forward. We’re trying to keep up the positive vibes and push forward for the community finding ways to do better.”

The other awardees were Big Jay Selepeo for music; Chinese Poksu for the Triggah-Killah Award for fishing content; Frank “The Crank” Camacho for content creator away from home; LP Beautyy and Sammmiiey for best collab; Netty Cee for food content; LP Beautyy for beauty content; Frankoyuhhh for lifestyle content; Naipai for fashion; Yoloswag Attacks for gaming; Queen of CK for comedic content; and Cuki Alvarez for health and itness.

Lely told Variety that PalmTrio670 aimed to ensure that the evening was a place of positivity and connection.

“SoMe is really like our baby,” he said. “SoMe … is really what we worked hard for. It’s really where we try to build our community and we try to bring people together to have a good time and celebrate the culture of content creation and also the Marianas.”

The positive vibes were shared by many awardees.

While accepting her award for fashion content creation, Naipai encouraged others to express themselves.

“Fashion has been such a big thing in my life because I’ve literally gotten bullied for the way I dressed,” she said. “But honestly, whoever loves to dress up, please just keep doing you. Keep being you because if you’re trying to satisfy society you will never be happy. Wear what you want to wear, girl slay, that’s what I try to do.”

Queen of CK likewise encouraged content creators in the room to keep “shining.”

“I want to let everyone know it’s hard being a star,” she said in jest. “But we got to keep going. Don’t ever let anyone dim your light, and never let anyone dim your shine.”

For his part, Frank “The Crank” Camacho spoke about his early days in content creation, and how it helped him share his home with the world while training and fighting as a professional mixed martial artist.

“Every trip when I came back I’d take my camera and I would film the Grotto [and other sites]. … I was creating content because at the end of the day I was a proud, proud local boy from Dandan that wanted to show the world where we came from,” he said. “It was the best way that I could share an amazing story through this powerful little thing. I think that all of us as content creators, we have a huge responsibility to continue to push forward to make this island a better place.”

Jefferson Mateo told Variety that the awards helped them stay connected with their fellow content creators.

“This is our second year, and we feel so much more love and support this time around,” he said. “We believe in ourselves but it’s [also] the people that come around and show that they believe in us.”

Moving forward, Louvicki Camacho said PalmTrio670 has plans for the region.

“All I’m going to say is when we created SoMe we didn’t just want it to be for Saipan, Rota, and Tinian — we wanted it to be bigger than what it is,” she said. “So little by little, step by step we’re working on it. The thing about us is we always try to outdo ourselves.”

“In 2026, expect something bigger,” Lely chimed in.

Podcasters and comedians Zori Talks — from left, Jesse Ogo, Ali Ogo, and Lucio Aldan — walked away with Content Creator of the Year Award at the 2nd SoMe Awards at Saipan World Resort on Saturday evening.