12-year-old boy from Cebu making waves as a young singer in Holland

A 12-year-old Filipino-Dutch boy from Cebu — Kim Regasa — is making waves as a young singer in Holland.

Last year, Regasa was one of the 15 finalists in Holland's reality singing competition "The Voice."

According to an email from Regasa's father Carlo de Blank to GMA News Online, the young singer joined “The Voice” in June 2012 and bested over 11,000 children in the initial screening.



Regasa was part of the top 90 contestants who advanced to the Blind Auditions.

Later, as one of the top 45 contestants, Regasa had the chance to be trained by the team of vocal coach Angela Groothuizen, a former singer of the group The Dolly Dots.

Although he made it to the top 15 contestants, he failed to win the top prize.

Despite this, Regasa continues to pursue his dream of becoming a singer.

He performs every now and then in Holland and Belgium while being mentored by his vocal coach Ellen Eeftink.

Regasa is also part of the Junior Songfestival in Holland composed of 75 children who will battle it out for a chance to compete in a Europe-wide contest.

Mother and son

Born in Cebu City, Regasa migrated to the Netherlands in 2008 with his family.

According to De Blank, Regasa started singing at a young age. Even when they were still in the Philippines, Regasa had been joining singing contests.

In 2010, he released a cover CD with his mom entitled “Mother&Son.”

“While his mother is a singer as well, she saw at the age of three that Kim had a talent for singing and started to teach him about singing,” Regasa's father shared.

“His goal in his life is to become a singer and with joining these kind of contests Kim hopes to get more experience in performing for audience and even more important he just loves to sing,” he added.

Aside from “The Voice,” Regasa also joined the 2010 “Holland's Got Talent” where he made it to the finals with his rendition of Michael Jackson songs.

Regasa sings English, Tagalog and Dutch songs. His favorite singer at the moment is Bruno Mars.

De Blank said they are planning to visit the Philippines next year. For now, Regasa continues to make Filipinos, especially Cebuanos proud, as he shows his world-class talent in Europe. - VVP, GMA News