Top 3 winners of talent competition awarded at ceremony
The top three winners of a local talent competition, Toledo’s Top Talent, took home prizes totaling more than $3,500 for their hard work and dedication this season.
The final round of the competition was held on Sept. 22 at the Peristyle Theater at The Toledo Museum of Art and featured five remaining finalists who battled it out for the top three winning spots.
A ceremony was held at Taylor Hyundai of Perrysburg on Oct. 10 to award the first, second and third place winners: Oscar Tovar, Luis Gamez and Mariah McCarter. They won $2,000 and a recording contract, $1,000 and $500, respectively. The ceremony featured food from Antojitos Laredo Tacos, sweet treats from Telera’s Bakery/Panaderia, giveaways and individualized awards presented to each winner.
“Toledo’s Top Talent is just one way we can showcase some of these kids and the talent that really is in Northwest Ohio,” said Steve Taylor Jr., dealer at Taylor Automotive Family.
Toledo’s Top Talent is an annual 12-week talent competition open to performers ages 8-24 in the greater Toledo area. Now in its second year, the competition partners with the City of Toledo, Taylor Automotive Family, The House of Chaos and Mas Y Mas Guidance and Supportive Services to fund the competition and its prizes.
Tovar, 18, is the first-place winner. He is an electrical engineering student at The University of Toledo and a second-year competitor in Toledo’s Top Talent. In the first season of the competition, Tovar placed 2nd place overall and he said his experiences last year helped him improve his confidence as a performer. It also prepared him for the rigor of this year’s competition.
“Last year I imagined myself as a singer,” he said. “But this year, I was like no, I am a singer, and I need to perform like one.”
Tovar won $2,000 and a recording contract with San Antonio-based music producer Gilbert Velasquez. Tovar and Velasquez have begun collaborating on the details of the contract and they will be recording, mixing, mastering and producing an original single or cover that is set to be released early next year.
“To me [the first place prize] means hard work and effort. I think I can finally see that when you put in the work you get what you deserve and that means a lot to me,” Tovar said after the ceremony.
He added that he is looking forward to using his experiences to become a mentor for the younger competitors in future seasons of Toledo’s Top Talent.
Gamez, 20, took home the second place prize of $1,000 after placing fifth overall last year. Gamez said he accessed his performances last season, and worked to improve himself as a person and as a musician this year. He worked on things such as his versatility and his stage presence, but his biggest challenge of all was his battle with sciatic nerve pain in his back, which hindered his ability to perform at his best.
“I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t run; I couldn’t perform the way I wanted to perform,” he said. “It wasn’t until I started to practice music that it gave me the energy to go work out. And once I got my back pain in order, my creativity exploded.”
Gamez challenged himself by performing different styles of music for each round of the competition this year, including cumbia, rock, opera and abuelito, a variation of mariachi. He said he plans on maintaining a diverse style in his upcoming multi-genre album that is set to drop in April 2025.
Gamez said winning the second place prize means a lot to him because he will be using his prize money to fly to Mexico and visit the ashes of his late mother.
“When my mom passed away, her ashes were taken to Mexico with my grandma to have her next to my grandpa,” he said. “It would be amazing to fly there and get to see her.”
Gamez plans on taking this special trip at the end of this year or early next year to honor her.
His upcoming album, as well as his other songs, Siete Dias and Carne Asada Cypher, can be streamed on all platforms, including YouTube and Spotify.
Toledo’s Top Talent will be making a change next season, as it is being introduced into Toledo Public Schools in 2025. The competition will remain open to the public, but event organizer Sabina Rodriguez said it is likely that Toledo’s Top Talent team will have to cap the number of contestants moving forward.
“We’ve been trying to get into TPS since the first year we started,” she said. “We’re going to be all throughout the city because we’re going to be in all TPS schools and pulling from all different areas.”
Interested competitors are encouraged to apply for Season 3 on the Mas Y Mas Guidance and Supportive Services website at the beginning of the upcoming year.
Auditions will be held in-person and virtually throughout the month of April, and the 2025 season will run from the beginning of May until the first week of September.
