World Championships of Performing Arts

The World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) is an international talent competition held annually in Los Angeles, California. Competitors of every age are judged in acting, singing, dancing, modeling, instrumentalists, and variety categories. Participants from all over the world pay their own way to Hollywood to compete in what is the single largest worldwide talent search in existence.

Founded by Griff O'Neil in 1996, The World Championships has sought out and found the next WorldStars from over 70,000 applicants and 47 countries in its decade-long competition, which culminates in an annual televised final awards show, in Hollywood.

An "Olympics-style" competition in which singers compete only against other singers, dance groups compete only against other dance groups, and so on, the participants are grouped by age into Juniors and Seniors, and then a winner is selected in each performance category, for both Juniors and Seniors, over a week long audition process. Industry heavy-weights, talent agents, record execs and television producers judge the talent to determine who moves onto the finals. Once at the finals, a champion is selected by 16 celebrity judges from among the top 3-4 performers in each category and both age groups. Of the eight category winners, a Junior and Senior Grand Champion Performer of the World is selected and awarded.

Thanks to the huge visibility the televised event provides, the winning performer (along with many other participants over the years) has found WCOPA a very useful stepping stone in launching a career in TV, films and music.

2008 WCOPA

The 2008 World Championships of Performing Arts will be held at the Universal CityWalk, Hollywood and Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles on July 19 to 27. Now on its 12th year, WCOPA is the first and only international series of competitions and talent search, whose objective is to find and crown the best aspiring performing artists in the world.

In its vocal category, each contestant can only sing a piece for 60 seconds. If one exceeds, 25% will be deducted to his/her final score. Vocalists are grouped in 2 divisions according to age - the juniors (age 15 and below), and the seniors (16 and above), with subgroups in each division. Contestants in the junior division are grouped from 8 to 10 years old, 11 to 12 and 13 to 15. The senior division: 16 to 17, 19 to 24, 25 to 29, 30 and above. Contestants undego 4 gruelling rounds of competition. [ [http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=124139 abs-cbnnews.com, Former world singing champ Jed Madela to judge 2008 WCOPA] ]

Round One is when contestants compete in their respective age brackets. Bronze, silver, gold medals and industry awards are special citations given out.

Round Two, the winning contestants from a particular age group compete with those in other age brackets. The over-all winners' plaques are special awards given out.

Round Three is when grand finalists are selected.

In the Final Round, there are usually about four to five grand finalists per category, Grand Champions of the World are chosen according to their respective categories like singing, dancing, modeling, and so on.

Also in the Final Round, only two will be chosen as Over-All Grand Champions of the World or Grand Champion Performers of the World, one from the junior division and the other from the senior division.

Champions

On July 26, 2008, Catherine Loria and Andrew Clarke were declared Over-All Grand Champions of the World at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. [ [http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/breakingnews/breakingnews/view/20080726-150898/Filipino-wins-top-honors-in-2008-Hollywood-Olympics showbizandstyle.inquirer.net, Filipino wins top honors in 2008 ‘Hollywood Olympics’] ]

=Juniors=
Vocal Group	Quintet Gotas de Luz	Guatemala
Dance	Marketa Frajkowska	Chech Republic
Female Model	Tayla Robson	South Africa
Male Model	Kole Smith	United States
Dance Group	M U C Junior Dancers	Jamaica
Actor	Claudia Perez Vigoa	United States
Vocal	Catherine Loria	Philippines
Instrumental	Quintet Gotas de Luz	Guatemala
=Seniors=
Dance	Christay Kotze	South Africa
Variety	Cecilia Andrén Zillah & Totte	Sweden
Female Model	Yulia Sharshakova	Moldova
Male Model	Nick Vaden	United States
Dance Group	2 Fries	Denmark
Actor	Dinah Bradford	United States
Vocal	Andrew Clarke	Jamaica
Instrumental	Darnell Thomas	Trinidad & Tobago

External links

* [http://www.world-championships.tv/ Official Website]

References