What Happened to Celia Munoz from “America’s Got Talent?”

Martha Clifford

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A Multifaceted Artist

Once in a while, talent shows are graced with the presence of a talented and passionate artist who doesn’t limit themselves to one act. In most instances, the contestant is a singer who can dance and play multiple instruments while holding an impressive note, an acrobat who does magic, or a different variation of talents and skills that aren’t often grouped together. In its 17th season in 2022, “America’s Got Talent” saw a performing artist who combined three unique talents and well-developed skills to deliver wondrous, entertaining and enthralling performances that were guaranteed to write the name Cecilia Munoz into their memorie,s and have every person in the audience, judges included, on their feet giving a standing ovation after every performance.

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Celia Munoz describes herself as a multifaceted artist. To every person who knows her or has seen one of her performances, the label doesn’t come close to describing the acts she stages in all her performances. Born in Madrid, Spain on 16 June 1985, Cecilia is a 36-year-old opera singer. She had undergone years of training as a lyrical soprano, and holds a Master’s degree in Operatic singing from the prestigious and world-famous Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. Celia’s training, talent, and passion for opera have won her appearances and performances on tours around the world as a soprano in several productions.

In addition to opera, Celia is an actress with a passion for theatre. She was a classical stage actress before she fell in love with opera, and started her vocal training sessions. As an actress, Celia peaked locally when she appeared at the “International Festival of Classical Theatre” in Almagro, Spain. Her talent and passion for drama took her beyond Spain to Finland and other European countries. Celia’s ability to excel at the two performing arts inspired her to explore different additions to her two talents. As part of her research, Celia evaluated different forms of illusionism, seeking to add a unique dimension to her performances. Eventually, she landed on the perfect act that combines her love for acting and her passion for singing, while entertaining her audience and impressing every person who watches her performances by creating an illusion.

Upon the completion of her research a few years ago, Celia earned the title of a multifaceted artist when she launched the result of her exploratory endeavors by adding a dummy to her act, launching herself as a ventriloquist. With the dummy, Celia could finally combine her two other talents and passions by moving the mouth of the dummy to mimic singing, while using gestures, her face, and body movements to act out different scenarios. Her new act awed her fans and audiences, leaving them in wonder over her mastery of the ability to hit and hold high and low notes with her mouth closed or engaged in other activities such as eating. The positive reception of her new act emboldened Celia, giving her the courage to put out her name for spots at different talent competitions, in and out of her home country.

“Spain’s Got Talent”

After redefining herself as a ventriloquist, Celia submitted an application for her first major talent competition. She passed the preliminary screening stage, and was invited to audition for “Spain’s Got Talent.” For her first performance, Celia promised the judges and audience a thrilling display, which she delivered as soon as she started moving her dummy’s mouth and singing, while her teeth were clenched in a smile. As soon as she sang the first notes, the audience marveled as Celia combined all three of her acts to deliver an unforgettable experience.

Celia’s performance was nothing like the audience had ever seen. Her facial expression remained unchanged and her jaw wasn’t clenched, yet she hit high notes that would typically require her to open her mouth, strain her neck muscles, and take in deep breaths. Celia was also moving her hands at the same time, mimicking the actions of a director of a musical performance, which would typically tire her out, but the physical strain didn’t affect her voice. The performance validated her ability to create an illusion, since she successfully planted doubts in the audience’s mind over whether she was actually singing, with one impressed fan joking that she was waiting for Celia to start singing alongside her dummy.

At the end of her audition, Celia had the audience on their feet cheering, and hoping to see more from her in the next round. Her act received glowing reviews from the judges, two of whom acted out their reviews of her performance in a similar act, with one of them as a dummy while his colleague gave his reviews. The consensus was that Celia was the fan favorite, and almost everyone wanted to see her win the competition.

For her second appearance, Celia put up a theatrical performance in which she pretended to summon a spirit. She combined her three talents by using body movements to raise and drop a table, the ability to mimic voices by singing as the spirit she summoned, speaking in character as a witch, and mimicking a human voice on the other side of a phone call, all in under two minutes. The performance earned her another standing ovation, and had the audience chanting, which earned Celia the Golden Buzzer from all four judges sending the singer, actress and ventriloquist to the semifinals and live shows.

Celia had her eyes set on the grand prize when she staged her last two performances at the competition. For the finals, she switched between singing through the dummy and singing as herself ,to honor her fans and the audience with the soprano she has perfected through years of training and practice. Her fans in the audience and the rest of Spain loved the performance because she was announced the winner of the sixth season of “Spain’s Got Talent” in 2021.

“America’s Got Talent”

After conquering Spain, Celia set her sights on the United States and sent in an application for the seventeenth season of “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) in 2022. For her audition, Celia revolutionized ventriloquism, by abandoning her dummy and replacing it with a radio, and performing a novel routine of a ventriloquist getting ready for a performance. The new act featured several voices that Celia voiced, including the static sound an untuned radio makes, snippets of different songs that play as one switches between channels, and an extended solo of one song. Her ability to switch between the different voices effortlessly had the crowd in awe.

Celia had every person in the audience on edge as she introduced a new level of acting to her routine. She pulled out a toothbrush from the mock vanity she had set up, and made the motion of brushing her teeth – all the while continuing to sing. She then took out some dental floss and proceeded to floss while singing. For her final act, Celia drank some water while holding a high note, leaving the audience in shock before everyone stood up to give the singer, actress and ventriloquist another standing ovation. Naturally, all judges agreed with the audience that they needed Celia back for the live performances, and looked forward to seeing what new acts she came up with for her next performance.

The audience anticipated another creative performance when the typical ventriloquism puppet was conspicuously missing from Celia’s second performance on AGT. Celia enacted an experience at a movie theatre from the moment she picked up some snacks and a drink to the moment the movie ended. As part of the act, she made the trademark phone call, ate some popcorn and ice cream, and drank her drink while singing. The judges praised Celia for her originality and creativity while the crowd honored her with applause for the entertaining performance.

Despite putting on an impressive, creative, and entertaining show, Celia finished third in the semifinal week. Fortunately, she secured her spot in the finals after Sofia Vergara nominated her for the Instant Save Wild Card, and the American public voted to keep her on the show. She thanked Sofia Vergara and her American fans by putting on her grandest show for her final performance.

In the finals, Celia’s acting prowess shone brightly while her soprano shone brighter when she delivered an improved performance of her act in the finals of “Spain’s Got Talent.” She opened her performance as a medium summoning the spirit of Maria Callas, one of the most loved and renowned opera singers of the 20th century. After successfully summoning the spirit, Celia paid homage to the legend in a song while eating an apple, answering a phone call, and downing some shots of a drink she had in a bottle on the table. At the end of the performance, all people in the audience were up on their feet in their now customary standing ovation, letting Celia know that she had conquered America and was ready for the global stage. … but at the end of the night, Celia was voted out of the competition, ending her long and impressive stint on “America’s Got Talent.”

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Controversy

Celia’s appearance on “AGT” was received negatively by some critics, who flooded the comment sections of news about her or videos of her performances, and called her out for auditioning for the show. According to the vocal critics, winning “Spain’s Got Talent” should have disqualified her from the possibility of auditioning for any other show in the franchise, to give other acts a chance. Although the criticism did not affect Celia’s opportunity to be on the show, it could lead the management to restrict winners or contestants from other competitions in the franchise from participating in “AGT” in the future.

International Performances

Winning “Spain’s Got Talent” and becoming a finalist at “America’s Got Talent” boosted Celia’s image as a prolific, passionate and entertaining performer. She honored the people who voted for her and kept her in the competition with her first performance in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she recreated her performance at the finals. After the performance, Celia embarked on a tour of several countries around the world, and staged performances that combined the three elements that make her a performing powerhouse; she’s currently performing at magic festivals organized by the International Federation of Magic Societies as a ventriloquist. In December 2022, Celia was one of the acts who performed at the Christmas Gala on Tele5. Early in 2023, she performed at the New Years Gala on Spanish National Television, since when she’s taken her original, creative, and charming ventriloquism performances to Salvame and Viva la Vida on TV5, Vigo Magic Fest and Toledo Ilusion, and Tu si que Valeson Italia Canal5.

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The Future

Celia is working to revolutionize the performing arts with her innovative combination of singing, acting skills, and the illusion of sight and sound to create unique ventriloquism performances. She hopes to continue stunning global audiences with her triple act, and inspire artists to break free of conventional performances, and create innovative acts that provide unique experiences for their audiences.

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