Sofronio Vasquez, the first Filipino and Asian winner of ‘The Voice,’ headlines a Manila International Film Festival event in Los Angeles, where the first responders of the California wildfires will also be honored

Sofronio Vasquez, who made history as the first Filipino and Asian winner of USA’s The Voice, will be the special guest performer in “A Tribute to our First Responders,” a dinner presented by the second Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) on March 7 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

Performing exclusively for the MIFF dinner tribute to the heroes who battled and contained the recent Southern California wildfires, Vasquez will move the audience in the International Ballroom with his powerful voice, which made him the grand champion of the prestigious American singing reality competition television series in Season 26.

The dinner tribute serves as a closing night of the 2025 MIFF which was postponed due to the SoCal wildfires and is now rescheduled to March 4 to 7.

The MIFF will still show entries plus special screening films at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to be capped by “A Tribute to Our First Responders” at The Beverly Hilton.

A portion of the proceeds from the MIFF events, including its screenings, will be donated to the Los Angeles fire relief efforts. All these events will have a fundraising aspect.

“A Tribute to Our First Responders” will be the first special live event performance of the proud son of Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental in America since winning in The Voice last December.

NBC, which airs The Voice, wrote about the belter: “Vasquez grew up in the Philippines, and while his family didn’t have much money when he was a child, he always had music. He credits his father with instilling in him a love of singing and even calls his father his first coach.

“But music wasn’t Vasquez’s first career pursuit. He studied to be a dentist and began practicing, but the tragic loss of his father inspired him to keep pursuing his dream of singing on the world’s stages, and he began to pursue music again in tribute to his father. That pursuit led to several viral cover songs on social media, and eventually, to the stage of The Voice. ”

Vasquez will join other talents who will make the MIFF tribute dinner a memorable evening in Hollywood. Stars of the participating entries and special screenings and other talents will grace the event.