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The Finalists - Juvenile Category

Grace Musabelliu was born in Toronto to Albanian parents. She is currently in grade 5 and

has had been taking music lessons over the past several months. She also loves drawing and reading. Her
goals are simple… to be her best and to win! Her favourite artists are Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 65

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The Finalists - Juvenile Category

Sabrina Barreto was born in Toronto. Her mom is from Mozambique and her dad is from

Brazil. She is currently in Grade 8. Sabrina started singing when she was 7 years old and has been taking vocal
lessons for the past four years. She also began studying piano about a year and a half ago. Her other hobbies
include figure skating, reading, travelling, songwriting and painting. Her goals are to continue performing,
writing songs, to go to art school and to get more formal musical training. Her favourite artist is Billie Eilish.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 67

68 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

The Finalists - Juvenile Category

Ishaan Grotra was born in Mississauga and has South Asian heritage. This grade 6 student started singing

at the age of 3 and soon after began vocal training. He has sung in the Mississauga Children’s Choir, Oakville Children’s
Choir and performed in musicals such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Lion King and Beauty & the Beast.
Ishaan has also taken lessons in piano, flute and ukulele. Aside from music, he enjoys baseball, basketball, swimming,
karate, lego and playing with his dog, Max. He has also been writing and recording his own songs and after COVID is
over, he would love to perform them to a stadium full of people. His favourite artists include Shawn Mendes, Whitney
Houston, Adele and Harry Styles.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 69

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70 The Singing Contest 2021

The Finalists - Juvenile Category

Malia Alfonso was born in Ethiopia. She was adopted by her Portuguese mom and brought to

live in Leamington, Ontario. Malia is currently in grade 9. She started taking classes in musical theatre at age
7 and added voice lessons when she was 10. Along with singing and acting, Malia loves travelling, reading,
songwriting and, especially nowadays, FaceTiming with friends. She wants to become a professional record-
ing artist and actress, maybe even on Broadway someday! Her favourite artists are BTS, Beyoncé and Bruno
Mars.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 71

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The Finalists - Juvenile Category

AJ Manuel was born in Toronto and his parents are originally from the Philippines. AJ’s dad would

sing to him as a baby and by age 2, AJ started singing back! Currently, he is in Grade 4 and at 9 years old,
he is our youngest contestant this season. He was attending vocal lessons but unfortunately, due to COVID,
they have been put on hold. Not to worry though, his parents are doing a great job coaching him at home.
Besides singing, AJ’s hobbies include playing piano, basketball, online games, making YouTube covers and
some TikTok. His goal is to become a famous singer/songwriter or producer. His favourite artists are Charlie
Puth, Jason Derulo and Shawn Mendes.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 73

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The Finalists - Adult Category

Carine Sroujian was born in Lebanon but is culturally Armenian. She first started getting ser-

ious about singing at around 12 years old when she put together a band that performed Ace of Base songs
in her school basement. Fast-forward to her adult years and she has a Bachelors in Journalism & Political
Science, a graduate certificate in Marketing & Communications, and is working as an Intuitive Coach, Healer,
Yoga teacher and motivational speaker. She has also had 3 years of vocal training. This busy lady also enjoys
hiking, skating, travelling, cooking, reading, astrology, scuba diving and dancing. Her goal is to create songs
that bring more love, joy and healing in the world. Her favourite artists include Aretha Franklin, Adele, Alicia
Keys, Lauren Daigle, Emeli Sandé and Lady Gaga.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 75

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76 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

The Finalists - Adult Category

JSJ aka Joshua Säde James, was born in Kitchener-Waterloo to a multi-generational Canadian

family. He has been singing ever since he can remember, including singing and choreographing routines in his living
room starting around age 5. He has studied musical theory to acting to guitar to movement and, in fact, has an Honours
Bachelor of Musical Theatre Performance from Sheridan College. His love of the arts is equaled only by his love of ani-
mals and he would love to have an animal sanctuary one day. JSJ is a professional actor and singer but when not on
contract, he enjoys filling in the time as a waiter. He is anxious for the pandemic to end so he can get back to touring.
In the meanwhile, he has plans to record, including a Christmas for the end of this year. Long term, he aspires to have
a long and fulfilling career like his favourite artist Christina Aguilera.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 77

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78 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

The Finalists - Adult Category

Julia Romanelli was born in Toronto but her Italian roots run deep. She began singing as soon

as she could speak and has had vocal training for the past 4 years. Julia is currently in grade 11 and her hob-
bies include writing music, experimenting with make-up and… science! In fact, she is thinking about pursuing
a career in the sciences. She has been writing and recording original music and plans to continue doing that.
Her favourite artists include Drake and Dua Lipa.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 79

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80 The Singing Contest 2021

The Finalists - Adult Category

Patrick Lopes was born in Toronto to a Portuguese family. He took performance and vocal

lessons many years ago through former contest coaches Zack Werner and Stephanie Tavares. His hobbies in-
clude rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs, spending time with family & friends and writing music. Patrick is
working towards becoming a professional musician but until he can perform for live audiences again, he has
been spending time writing and recording original music. He also continually strives to meet his other goal
which is to be the best person he can be! His favourite artists include John Lennon, Morgan Wallen and the
Jonas Brothers.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 81

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82 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

The Finalists - Adult Category

Cassie Acevedo was born in Richmond Hill. Her mom is Portuguese (from Mozambique) and

her dad is Chilean. Cassie is currently in Grade 11 and started singing at about six years old. She started music
lessons at age 10 and has performed in musical theatre. Aside from singing and acting, she enjoys soccer,
painting and basketball. She hopes to have her music playing on the radio one day and to write music that
people will love and can relate to. On the other hand, she also wants to work with animals. Hmm, maybe she
means drummers?! Her favourite artists are Adele and Billie Eilish.

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 83

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Exploring Careers in Music?

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The landscape of the entertainment business is changing
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Metalworks Institute can help you achieve your goals.

growing and shifting demands. Drawing on over 40 years
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88 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

Who are... John & Lisa Santos (Duo Santos)

John and Lisa Santos — a well-matched pair formed as accompanist to

Frank Sinatra Jr., Tommy

Duo Santos’ 25th James and The Shondells,

anniversary celebrates George Savalas and Nestor

the couple John and Pistor, among others.

Lisa Santos, a husband

and wife harmoniously In 1979, John Santos took

linked in art as in life. up residence in Vancouver

and from there went on

João Manuel Gomes various gigs throughout

dos Santos, recording Canada and the United

artist with 16 CDs to his States. Lisa Santos

credit, founder-manager and music- From

al director of the Amateur Singing 1980 to 1984, he established himself

Contest, was born in Lisbon and emi- in the Canadian community around

grated to Canada with his family at Vancouver, both as a solo act as well as

the age of ten. in conjunction with Burton Cummings

and Ella FitzGerald.

Showing an aptitude and a taste

for music, he began playing accor- In 1985, he met Lisa Arthurs...

dion and guitar at the age of four-

teen. During this time, he began his Lisa Arthurs was born in Duncan,

artistic career, doing shows with the Milo (Duo Ouro Negro), Quim Barreiros B.C., on lovely Vancouver Island, May
Portuguese Association of Manitoba and John, 1976 1, 1965, the first-generation Canadian

and the local CTV station’s Talent daughter of English parents. From a

Show. very early age, she felt the attraction

of music and singing. At the age of 16,

With his parents’ help, he record- she entered the Royal Conservatory

ed his first work on CD in 1975 and of Music in Victoria, where she stud-

from then until 1977 recorded six ied singing and, in her school band,

CDs. He recorded the first in 1977 in learned to play the flute. At 18, with

Portugal with Quim Barreiros and the reservations, naturally, on the part

Conjunto Típico de Jorge Fontes. At of her parents, she left university to

various points in his career, he per- Lisa with Brother, Damian Arthurs dedicate herself to music. In the world

1st promo picture, 1985 Duo Santos in Portugal Duo Santos in Portugal

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 89

style gProil“rleTtudhgecuhbeiecssketen”

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Who are... John & Lisa Santos (Duo Santos)

of music, she met, States, Brazil and

then fell in love with, Canada and marketed

John Santos and in throughout the world.

1985, they joined The tracks “Ai que

forces to become the bom” and “Ninguém

Duo Santos, concen- nos detém” made

trating on working the charts in Portugal

on the cruise ships of and “Desgarrada do

the Princess Cruises Amor”, in Australia

line, on the well- and Hawaii. Variety Club Telethon with
known “Love Boat”. Burton Cummings

They married on With Lisa’s natural

John and Lisa in Hawaii August 20, 1988. flair for learning Portuguese songs without knowing the

language, Duo Santos toured Portuguese communities

In the 90s, they set off on world spread throughout the world and

tours that took them to 302 cities with great success. In Montreal,

scattered over 42 countries on 4 John and Lisa became friends with

continents. In Portugal, Lisa was portuguese guitarist Artur Gaipo

very taken by popular Portuguese and had the privilege of meet-

songs, singing them in her own ing and working with Amália

style. John harnessed Lisa’s apti- Rodrigues. Lisa Santos was captiv-

tude for and skill in learning the ated by Amália, her voice and her

words and sounds of Portugal, fados. She became enthusiastic

teaching her to sing Portuguese about Amália’s fado songs, learn-

songs with him. Thus was born a José Mário Coelho, John, Lisa and Filipe Neves ed them, sang them, initially not

woman of “Shakespearean” ori- understanding their language but

gins giving voice to the language of Camões. Though she responding to their feeling of nostalgia. At the request

still didn’t speak Portuguese, she could sing Portuguese of a friend, Dinis Paiva and at John’s insistence, she re-

melodies to perfection. Together, they recorded 12 CDs corded an album of traditional fados —”Também can-

and 3 videos, published in Portugal, Venezuela, United to o fado”— with its outstanding homage to the Diva,

Duo Santos in Australia On RTP with Marco Paulo Artur Gaipo, Lisa and John

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2021 91

Architectural Design
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Who are... John & Lisa Santos (Duo Santos)

“Amália, Mulher e Povo”. From that With Amália Rodrigues by the welcome arrival of a daughter,
time on, the fado became part of the Receiving a Gold Medal from Disney Kyla. Looking after a family and orga-
Duo Santos’ repertoire, featuring the nising the Amateur Singing Contest
unmistakable voice of Lisa. The videos have kept John and Lisa very busy
of the fados sung by Lisa may be heard but, when they can, they want to act
at www.duosantos.com, along with on pending invitations to perform in
other Duo Santos favorites. Portugal, Hawaii and Australia and
to record over the next two years. In
More recently, John and Lisa spent August 2010, they will tour California.
three years working for Disney, coming
away with a Gold Medal for their art- This year, 2010, to mark the occasion
istic achievements. Later on, Disney’s of their 25th artistic anniversary, Duo
agent offered John the position of Santos is releasing a double CD with
Musical Director but, given that John 40 successes, including three new ori-
and Lisa now had two children, the of- ginals: “25 anos”, “Foi a música” and
fer was deferred. “Papel de Quatro Cores”, in collabor-
ation with Fernando Correia Marques.
Each of the Duo Santos’ recordings One of John and Lisa’s most striking
is an original, written expressly for attractions is the variety of instru-
ments that they play and their ability
to sing in Portuguese, English, Greek,
Italian, Croatian, French, Spanish and
Hawaiian.

John and Lisa: well-matched in art as
in life!

Very best wishes!

Lisa, Mike Sargeant and John John, Mike Sargeant, Lisa José Mário Coelho
and José Cid in 2002 Toronto, April 24, 2010
them by José Cid, Tó Maria Vinhas, Mike
Sergeant, Tozé Brito, José Mário Coelho,
Filipe Neves, Fernando Correia Marques,
Valdemar Mejdoubi, Hernâni Raposo,
Raúl Lucas, José Pereira, Zé da Vesga,
João Paulo, Remo, and the singers them-
selves, John and Lisa.

After the birth of James Manuel Santos, www.duosantos.com
their first child, in December 2005, John
took part in a short, North American The Santos Family 2021 - Lisa, John, James & Kyla 93
tour with the Trio Odmira. In July 2007,
the nuclear family was increased to four The Singing Contest 2021

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The Coaching

Unlike every previous year, where rehearsals were tight- Lisa, masked and coaching with the transparent curtain
ly scheduled, back-to-back, this season we had to be very rolled down.
conscientious about scheduling enough time between
contestants in order to assure that physical distancing ed to polish their vocal and stage performances in order
could be maintained. To do that, rehearsals were spread to really shine onstage. The hope is to provide each con-
out over Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. testant with tools and techniques which they will still be
We tried Zoom initially but the average set-up just isn’t using well beyond their time with the contest.
well-suited to musical performances. Therefore, aside
from going over very basic issues, contestants came into This season provided the coaches with the unique chal-
SCJS Studios at Casa do Alentejo to rehearse their songs. lenge of helping the contestants learn to shine without
be able to see the audience. We helped them understand
For the Semifinalists’ rehearsals, we were able the need to reach beyond the camera lens and to cre-
to give the semifinalists an almost immersive ate intimate moments with the audience on the other
experience thanks to the big screen. Here Lisa is side of the cameras. We needed them to learn to find
reviewing Ishaan’s first performance with him. inspiration in an often uninspiring studio environment.
In other words, they needed to find it within themselves.
Of course, the ability to tune in emotionally and then
convey those emotions through singing is precisely what
makes an excellent singer anyway. In the end, having no
live audience in front of them may have actually helped
them learn to dig deeper for their performances. When
life gives you lemons… or a pandemic…

We provide contestants with the expertise of a profes- Zoom rehearsals were kept to a minimum and were used
sional vocal coach who has been a part of the contest only as a last resort… like, for example, a possible Covid
since Day 1, Lisa Santos. The contestants have the oppor- exposure.
tunity to benefit from the different perspectives and
coaching styles Lisa has been witness to over the years. The Singing Contest 2021 95
Influenced by theory from the Royal Conservatory to
Vocology to personal experience gained from more than
35 years as a professional vocalist, Lisa helps contestants
tweak their performances for the audiences and judging
panels whose expectations she has become intimately
familiar with. John also gives his own valuable input, giv-
ing contestants a more complete picture of what is need-

www.TheSingingContest.com

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For more information contact: Casa do Alentejo 416 537 7766 | 1130 Dupont St., Toronto, ON M6H 2A2

Casa do Alentejo

COMMUNITY CENTRE OF TORONTO

Authentic Portuguese Cuisine

Open for Lunch Open for Dinner Reservations & Information On Saturdays try our famous
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96 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com

Casa do Alentejo

For the 9th year in a row, we have had the pleasure of The centre also provides space for a Portuguese school.
holding each and every one of the qualifying rounds at The school, Novos Horizontes (New Horizons), is used
Casa do Alentejo Community Centre. Unfortunately, this mainly on Saturdays to teach young students the lan-
year, for obvious reasons, we were not able to have our guage of their forefathers. They are right next door to
contestants perform on the fantastic stage downstairs in SCJS Studios.
the main hall. Nor were we able to share them with the
wonderful live audiences the contest attracts. However, We really appreciate being able to use
thanks to Casa do Alentejo as well as our 3rd floor neigh- the multiple spaces at Casa do Alentejo.
bour, Novos Horizontes Portuguese school, we were able It has always made things very conven-
to set up a fabulous broadcast facility to showcase their ient for everyone involved in the contest,
talent to a wider online audience. including the contestants, but this year,
we truly wouldn’t have been able to do
So, what is Casa do Alentejo exactly? It is an organ- it without you! That being said, we def-
ization dedicated to the Portuguese community in initely look forward to being able to re-
Toronto. Through various cultural and social activities, turn to the main hall one day and enjoy
not only the excellent performance stage
but being able to get a drink and a meal
in the restaurant and bar area before the
show. Now that is something we have cer-
tainly missed!

they help Portuguese immigrants and
their Canadian families maintain links to
their cultural heritage. They recently cele-
brated their 38th anniversary.

Alentejo is a province in Portugal The Singing Contest 2021 97
famous for, among other things, it’s wine,
it’s cork industry (goes well with wine!)
and it’s music. In trying to keep their trad-
itions alive, Casa do Alentejo has its own
choir, a folk dance group and has continu-
ally strived to bring some of the best and
brightest artists from Portugal, both nos-
talgic attractions and rising stars.

www.TheSingingContest.com

98 The Singing Contest 2021 www.TheSingingContest.com