Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the World Championship of Performing Arts was done on-line and named as Virtual World Championship of Performing Arts 2020 (VWCOPA 2020). Also known as the “Olympics” of Performing Arts, WCOPA is held annually in Hollywood and is the biggest competition of its kind in the world. The VWCOPA was held between July 24 to August 01, 2020.
This year, Malaysia sent 12 participants to compete in VWCOPA, comprising of 9 contestants from Peninsular Malaysia, 2 from Sabah and 1 from Sarawak. Seven(7) contestants are in the Junior division, ages from 10 to 15 years, and five(5) in the Senior division, ages between 19 to 35 years. Altogether they entered 14 competitions in the categories of Vocal, Modelling, Dance and Acting.
The Grand Final was telecast Live on Friday, July 31 (Malaysian time: Saturday, August 01 @ 7.00am). The medal winners were announced on Sunday, August 02 @ 3.00am (Malaysian time).
Team Malaysia members found on Sunday morning that they had won medals for all the competition entered with 2 Gold medals, 7 Silver and 5 Bronze medals. The Gold medals was delivered by Sarah Qistina Lim (10 years) in Vocal Jr. and Nur Ilyasha Qistina (also 10 years) in Modelling Jr. Silver medals were won by Alesha Izznur (Vocal Jr.), Adibah Azmi (Model Jr.), Nurul Iman Balqis (Vocal Jr.), Yazmin Aziz (Vocal Sr.), Melissa Anne (Vocal Sr.), Aloysius Susek (Vocal Sr.) and Angelica Villamor (Vocal Sr.). Nur Arissa Khyra scored 2 Bronze medals for Acting Jr. and Model Jr. together with Ahmad Mikhail Damsal (Dance Jr.), Adibah Azmi (Vocal Jr.) and Gabriel Fairuz (Vocal Sr.).
Virtual WCOPA was organized by MATME Sdn. Bhd. – the exclusive licensee in Malaysia, together with Glamour World Management and Worldstars International. MATME started participating each year in WCOPA since 2005 and is supported and endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia. The selection of Team Malaysia were done early this year both Live auditions and on-line.
MATME hope to sent a bigger team for WCOPA 2021 which would be held at Disneyland, Anaheim, California in July 2021. Auditions for Team Malaysia 2021 will commence later this year.