One of St. Cloud’s Own Brings Home Musical Gold

ST. CLOUD --  A resident of the Granite City just brought home some serious hardware from an international performing arts competition last week.

James Calacsan -- originally from the Phillippines -- represented the United States last week in the 2018 "World Championship of Performing Arts". He was in the soul, R & B and open singing events. The competition was in Long Beach, California.

Calacsan was the lone Minnesotan on Team USA in the competition.

He brought home three gold medals, a silver medal, two plaques and one vocal "Grand Champion" award while competing in the event. Calacsan says it took a lot of sacrifice on his part to make that happen.

"There's a lot of sacrifices for it. I wasn't able to drink certain things, I refused a lot of outings with friends, and it took a lot of focus, that I had to maintain through my journey."

In celebration of his impressive performance, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis declared July 18th "James Calacsan Day" in the city. Calacsan says he can't really believe he has his own day, but he's extremely proud.

"I can't believe it right now, I thought it was only for 'important' people. I'm not sure if I deserve a day or not, but they [the city] gave me one so I'll accept it wholeheartedly."

He earned his day, in part, for his rendition of "Never Enough" from the movie The Greatest Showman. He sang that for the crowd at Summertime by George just after Mayor Kleis announced his day. Calacsan says, despite the big stage he was just a part of, he loved being back home and singing for his hometown.

Calacsan says he's planning to start recording his own music this year and hold some "mini" concerts around town. He says he wants to share his talent with everyone else in St. Cloud.