Young anthem singer hits all the right notes for Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO (CNS) — The Toronto Maple Leafs have given fans little to cheer about in recent years, but a 15-year-old girl from a Toronto Catholic high school hopes to help change that.

Martina Ortiz-Luis, a 10th-grade student from Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts in Toronto, was recently selected from among more than 500 applicants to be the team’s official anthem singer for home games.

“I’m just really excited to pump up the crowd at every home game this season,” she said. “It’s like a dream come true and I am so happy.

“I’m a fan of all of the Toronto teams. I really wanted to sing for one of them,” she said.

When it comes to hockey, she says all of her friends are fans, but the Leafs are the only team she follows.

“When my parents moved here (from the Philippines), they started getting into hockey,” she said. “You have to support the Toronto teams.”

In the 100-year history of the Leafs, this season marks the first time one person has been chosen to sing the anthem at every home game. Martina, who had never attended a Leaf game prior to this fall, earned the job after advancing through several audition rounds against several hundred other aspiring anthem singers. By the end of September, she had become the top choice selected by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment officials.

“There were a lot of professionals, and I was really nervous because I was one of the youngest ones there,” Martina said. “Thankfully, though, I got the gig.”

Similar to the players, Martina spent the preseason traveling to Canadian cities to hone her anthem singing at exhibition games. She made her exhibition season debut at the Air Canada Centre Oct. 2 when the Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 in overtime.

“It was surreal,” she said. “The capacity of the ACC is like 19,000, and it was sold out that night. I was really pumped that night and, after I was done, it hit me that, oh my God, I just sang at the ACC.”

Her father, James, admits watching her perform “is nerve-wracking for a parent like me,” but he believes his only daughter is up to the challenge.

“As an anthem singer, you’ve got to be able to make the people feel,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure involved, but she likes it. She loves to sing, and she loves to perform as part of big crowds.”

He added that although working with the Leafs “wasn’t even on our radar … until a month ago,” his daughter has been preparing for such a role most of her life.

“Even though she is only 15, this is 10 years in the making,” he said. “It is not like it happened yesterday.”

When she was as a toddler, her Manila-born parents recognized her gifted voice, and they put her into voice training at age 3. While studying at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, Martina’s repertoire included all types of music, from classical to pop. At age 12, she wrote and performed her first original song, “True Friends.” The video included several other students from Cardinal Carter Academy, and the song was a semifinalist in an international songwriting contest.

Her ambition is to become a professional singer and songwriter. Accomplished on the guitar and violin, the honors student from St. David Parish in Vaughan, has sung at numerous music festivals and concerts. In 2014, she wrote and performed “The Spirit of Christmas,” the official Christmas song of World Vision, which earned her the Father Andrew Cuschieri Humanitarian Award for charitable work from the Toronto Catholic District School Board. She hopes public recognition through the Maple Leafs will help her charitable endeavors.

“Once I started performing for charities, I realized that I wanted to use my talents to help other people,” said Martina, a 2015 contestant in the Philippines version of the reality TV singing show “The Voice.”

And while some cynics suggest working with the Leafs is an act of charity, Martina expects to see changes this season going well beyond the national anthem.

“I am just really, really excited to go out there and do my thing,” she said. “I grew up with all of my friends being hockey fans … and we all think this will be the year of the Leafs.”

Along with singing “O Canada” in English, Martina will sing the anthem in French when the Montreal Canadiens or Ottawa Senators are in town. When the Leafs face an American team, she’ll follow “O Canada” with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Like the players, Martina plans to arrive at the arena a few hours before game time in order to do a sound check and warm up with singing exercises. Similar to the athletes, “you’ve got to stretch and warm up before you sing,” she said. That is particularly important when working a hockey game.

“Being down at the ice, it is really cold,” she said. “So whenever I sing, I have to get my body used to that temperature, because I can’t always wear a jacket.”