{"id":195263,"date":"2018-12-26T00:59:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=195263"},"modified":"2018-12-26T00:59:09","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:59:09","slug":"filipina-bella-santiago-dominates-x-factor-romania-wins-grand-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/26\/filipina-bella-santiago-dominates-x-factor-romania-wins-grand-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipina Bella Santiago dominates X Factor Romania, wins grand prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_195264\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-195264\" style=\"width: 772px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-26-at-11.05.12.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-195264 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-26-at-11.05.12.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"772\" height=\"798\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-195264\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: &#8220;A positive attitude can really make a dream come true.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BryFvYmjmGD\/\">Photo<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bellasantiagoresciebelle\/\">@bellasantiagorescebelle<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\">Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Twenty-nine-year-old Bella Santiago, originally from Dasmari\u00f1as, Cavite, dominates <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">X Factor Romania<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and was hailed the grand prize winner of the reality show\u2019s eighth season last Sunday, December 23.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being among one of the Top 4 finalists, namely Doinita Ionita, Cristian Moldovan, and Iona Bulgaru, Bella stunned the crowd with her mashup performance of Beyonce\u2019s tracks \u201cLove on Top\u201d and \u201cCrazy in Love,\u201d satisfying the judges who initially compared her to the artist during auditions. As the first Filipina to reach even the live shows of the singing competition, Bella couldn\u2019t help but be in tears of joy and on her knees in excitement as she was handed the cash prize of 100,000 euros. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bella took to Facebook after the final announcement, thanking her fans, saying in Romanian, \u201cThank you very much for your support and for adopting me,\u201d adding, \u201cAfter everything that happened last night, I feel more Romanian than I\u2019ve ever been, and that\u2019s because of you, you\u2019re wonderful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bella already made headlines during her audition performance in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">X Factor Romania<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where she gave a taste of Jessie J\u2019s hit \u201cBang Bang.\u201d One judge (who eventually became her mentor), Romanian singer Delia Matache, responded to the performance, stating, \u201cBella Santiago has everything. I do not see who can match it! I like her stage presence and looks as if there is no one to take her out of there. You are a complex artist with a very good energy. I have the feeling that I can win X Factor with you!&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Previously, Bella also joined Romanian competitions like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Romania\u2019s Got Talent<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eurovision Romania. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She even tried out for Philippine reality show <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Showtime<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s \u201cTawag ng Tanghalan\u201d segment, where she also sang \u201cCrazy in Love.\u201d Initially, she moved to Malaysia to work as a professional singer before trying the European lifestyle out with her now-husband Nicolas Grig and signing with major Romanian record label, Cat Music.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-nine-year-old Bella Santiago, originally from Dasmari\u00f1as, Cavite, dominates X Factor Romania and was hailed the grand prize winner of the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","category-entertainment-ph","mauthors-gianna-llanes","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}