Maria Aragon	Mimoza Duot
	April Rose Llave	Reynalyne Gacilan

WINNIPEG – The year 2011 was a whirlwind for Winnipeg’s Maria Aragon. The 11-year-old’s YouTube video went viral in February after pop superstar Lady Gaga endorsed her in a tweet to her fans. Since then Maria has performed on stage with Gaga, made guest appearances on The Ellen Show, Good Morning America, sang with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, performed anthems for royalty on Canada Day and millions of boxing fans at the recent Pacquiao-Marquez fight, and signed contracts with SM Supermalls and Star Records in the Philippines.

Mimoza Duot has been recording an album and shooting videos over the past year with the indie label and production company Gimme More Music in Toronto. She also performed in July at the premier party of YTV’s The Next Star nationwide television singing competition in which she was among the top six finalists in 2010.

April Llave also beat out more than 4,000 competitors from across Canada to become one of the top six finalists in The Next Star contest this past September. The statuesque 13-year-old will headline a concert with her Vigcor Music School colleagues next February in appreciation of all her fans who voted for her in the competition.

Reynalyne Gacilan, another 13-year-old Winnipegger with an astounding vocal talent, won the fist-ever TFCkat talent search during the One Kapamilya Go show in Calgary on July 24. She later performed in One Kapamilya Go 2011 at Universal Studios in California and made guest appearances on the TFC shows Adobo Nation and Balitang Canada/America. Reynalyne was also the CKJS Tuklas Talino Junior Champion in 2008.

In July, eleven-year-old singer Vina Dimayuga represented Team Canada at the 2011 World Championship of Performing Arts (WCOPA) in Hollywood, California. She brought home seven medals after competing among more than 5000 participants from 52 countries. She competed in the Junior Vocal Division in five categories: Broadway Musical, Pop, Open, Variety and World. Vina also won the top prize in the junior category of the CKJS Tuklas Talino singing contest in 2010.

Topping off the year, Winnipeg’s SIKAT Dance Company, headed by director Wayne Santos and choreographers Brock Isfeld, Mark Domingo and Jeff Dela Rosa, added another championship to their long list of competitive hip hop dance victories. They won the first place and crowd favourite awards at the 2011 World of Dance competition in Chicago on November 27. Congratulations to SIKAT and all of Winnipeg’s talented entertainers.

Maria Aragon

Mimoza Duot

April Rose Llave

Vina Dimayuga

Reynalyne Gacilan is interviewed at Adobo Nation on TFC-USA

Competitive hip hop group SIKAT Dance Company (2008 file photo)