OPM icon Ima Castro will receive the Outstanding Filipino Luminary Awards 2021 for culture and the arts at the Conrad Manila Hotel in Pasay City on Sept. 24.
The EspiCom Group said the award will be given to Ima for wholeheartedly sharing her musical brilliance to each one of us by representing the Philippines and Filipinos all over the world with her art—proving that the right amount of excellence is the key to unlock our truest potential.
This year, Ima marks her 28th year in the business. She started as a pop singer with two solo albums and has received a gold record award: her self-titled album which included her duet with Lloyd Umali entitled “Nanliligaw, Naliligaw”. She has won in numerous song festivals here and abroad.
In 2000, Ima was chosen by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and his creative team to be a part of the Manila run of the mega musical Miss Saigon at the CCP, and soon was offered to play the lead role of Kim in the same production followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Portugal.
She became a regular actress/artist at the prestigious National Theatre Studio in the UK for the workshops of their new plays and musicals.
Recently she came back to Manila and did more musicals and concerts for Atlantis Productions and Resorts World Manila such as “AIDA, In The Heights, PIAF, The Full Monty, TARZAN, GHOST, and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert”.
In 2012 and 2014, she did concerts entitled “The Broadway Showstoppers” with Leo Valdez and Joanna Ampil and “East Coast to West End” with Monique Wilson, Tanya Manalang and again Leo Valdez, respectively produced by Ultimate Productions for Resorts World Manila.
She was beyond thrilled to be handpicked as Bloody Mary for South Pacific in Concert in September 2015 at The Newport Performing Arts Theatre. She was in the cast of Spotlight Artists Centre’s Original Filipino Musical, D.O.M. (Dirty Old Musical) in Sept. 2016 and a re-run in January 2017.
Ima was also in the original cast of the musical “Maynila: sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag” which was staged in September of the same year. In 2018, Ima was part of another critically acclaimed Original Filipino Musical entitled “Binondo: a Tsinoy Musical at the Theatre at Solaire in Manila, Philippines.