Frankie Cena

Frankie Cena is a Canadian musician, model, debate coach, personality, emcee and TV host from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Early life

Frankie was born Francesco Cena on September 11, 1991 in Burnaby to parents Cathy and Tony Cena (now divorced) and sister Tonya Cena. He attended Burnaby Mountain High School,^[1] during which time he was named a Burnaby Local Hero for dedicating over 670 hours of volunteer work to his community.^[2] He later graduated from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.^[3]

Music

Frankie’s first performances were with the British Columbia Boys Choir at the age of nine years.^[4] As a member of the choir, Frankie travelled throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia where he was featured on billboards across China.^[5] He also had the opportunity to perform for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II at her 50th Jubilee in front of a live television audience and an arena of hockey fans.^[6]

Frankie’s music was not just limited to the choir, and soon his solo career began taking off. He performed at festivals, competitions and other events around the Greater Vancouver Area. From these competitions he won accolades such as Port Moody Idol, Tri-City Idol, Youth Talent Showdown Champion, Lougheed’s Got Talent Champion, and PNE Star Discovery Finalist.^[7] He also combined his talents of singing and performing with acting. Throughout his young career, Frankie appeared in lead roles in local productions of "The King Who Wouldn’t Sing," "How I Became Queen," "Aladdin," "Grease," and "Next to Normal."^[8]

Debate

While his singing career was progressing, Frankie was also pursuing his interests in debate. Throughout his time in high school, Frankie won many local and international tournaments. He took home the top prize from the Golden Gnomes Debate Tournament and the Regional Championships twice over; he was also named an Optimist Oratorical International Finalist, was runner up for best speaker at the Heart of Europe International Debating Championships in the Czech Republic,^[9] and was the United Nations Youth Conference Chairman in New York City.^[10]

Career

Music

Frankie’s musical audience continues to grow. In 2010, Cena made it to the third round of the televised singing and acting competition, The Glee Project.^[11] Two years later, in 2012, he made it to the televised rounds of the final season of Canadian Idol.^[12] In 2013, he sang at the X Factor USA live auditions in Los Angeles.^[13]

In 2014, on the same stage where Michael Buble once made his debut, Frankie held his debut concert at the Michael J. Fox theater.^[14] He was accompanied by many recognized Vancouver artists as his guest such as Stephanie Standerwick, Jerrica Santos, Ria Jade, Iris Del Castillo, Gelsy Wong, and Jessica Zraly.^[15] Proceeds from his concert went to the Promise For Tomorrow Foundation, the youth chapter of the Chi Heng Foundation Canada, an organization that supports orphaned children in China.^[16]

Frankie continues to pursue his musical career by frequently posting covers of popular songs and music videos on his YouTube channel and performing at events both local and abroad, such as at the BC Lions football games.^[17] In 2013, he released his first original single, "On Top of the World." His single pays tribute to his struggles as an artist and the resolutions he chooses to live by. It was debuted on an international stage at the Mr. World 2014 Finale.^[18] He hopes to one day be a globally recognized R&B artist.

Modelling

In 2013, Frankie’s modelling career kicked off with American Eagle’s Project Live Your Life. The grand prize for this contest was to be featured in the company’s 2013 Back to School Campaign, and men from across North American submitted their applications.^[19] Ultimately selected as one of the finalists for the competition—and one of only two Canadians—Frankie’s fate was left to public popular vote.^[20] Despite his height of only 5’6", Cena took home the top prize, was flown to New York for the photo shoot and became the face of the Fall 2013 campaign.^[21]

Mr. World

In 2012, Frankie was selected to be Mr. World Canada and was chosen to represent Canada not only as an actor, model, ambassador, and spokesperson for various companies and causes, but also as Canada’s entry for the Mr. World Pageant—the largest male pageant competition in the world.^[22] The competition, held in Torbay, England, featured over 50 men competing in fitness, modeling, photo shoot, interview, multimedia, and talent contests.^[23] This event was overall a huge success for Frankie. After singing Down by Jay Sean in the talent portion of the competition, Frankie was crowned Mr. World Talent, came second in the multimedia competition, and was awarded at top ten finish overall at the competition.^[24] Frankie was the shortest man to ever compete at the tournament^[25] and the first Canadian contestant to ever place.

Due to his demonstrated capability and success at the Mr. World competition, Frankie was invited back in 2014 to act as a TV awards presenter alongside the reigning Miss World, Megan Young.^[26] He interviewed the contestants, judged the talent portion of the competition, and presented at the finale.^[27]

Later in 2014, Cena was invited back by the Miss World organization for the third time. This time, he was hired to be the Web Presenter for the Miss World 2014 pageant alongside fellow presenters Megan Young and Access Hollywood host Tim Vincent.^[28] Frankie was responsible for writing articles, conducting interviews, and creating extensive video coverage of the event featured on the Miss World website. During the finals of the competition, Cena was featured on international television as an awards presenter.^[29]

Debate Coach

In 2008, after debating for only four years, Frankie began coaching at Burnaby Mountain Secondary School.^[30] His students became regional champions, the winners of the International Tournament of Champions, members of Team Canada,^[31] EurOpen Debate Champions,^[32] and runners up at the Heart of Europe Debating Tournament - International Debating Championships in Olomuoc, Czech Republic.^[33]

From there, Cena moved on to coach at Crofton House School, a prestigious, private Vancouver girls school.^[34] His successes there have been even greater. Under his mentorship, the Crofton Debate team has gone on to win the Vancouver Regional Championships, the BC Provincial Championships, the International Championship for Young Debaters,^[35] Prague Spring Debate, Heart of Europe Debating Tournament, and came second at the Prometheus Cup in Singapore and the Eurasian Schools Debating Championships in Istanbul among many other awards and titles.^[36] One of his students from Crofton has also gone on to represent Team Canada as a National Team debater and has won titles such as Top Speaker at the EurOpen Debate Championships in Stuttgart Germany^[37] and Top Female Speaker at the World Speech Championships.^[38] He continues to coach at Crofton and earn new awards.

Most recently, Frankie has been hired to be the coach of the Danish National Debate Team.^[39] With his leadership, Denmark achieved its best finish in history at the World Championships 2014 and is expected to rank even higher in 2015.^[40]

Other Achievements

In 2014, Frankie was featured on the hit TV game show Let’s Make A Deal.^[41] After singing for the audience, he walked away with a sizable prize.

Later that year, Cena emceed the renowned Port Moody Kaboom! Arts Fair.^[42]

In 2015, Frankie was hired for his first ever International Speaking Engagement. In Naga City, Philippines, Frankie gave the keynote address at the convocation for Brentwood College of Asia International School.^[43]

References

External links

• https://www.youtube.com/user/frankster83