Portuguese McDonald's employee wins global talent show

Nation's Restaurant News, May 19, 2008

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Natercia Pintor, a McDonald's employee from Lisbon, Portugal, won the Voice of McDonald's singing competition here recently with a rendition of the "Dreamgirls" anthem, "I Am Telling You I'm Not Going."

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This was the second year that Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. sponsored the talent show, billed as the largest global singing competition of its kind. Open to the 1.6 million McDonald's crew members and managers in the chain's more than 30,000 restaurants in 118 countries, the sign-off attracted more than 3,600 contestants from 53 countries.

As grand-prize winner, Pintor received $25,000 and a trip for two to the "American Idol" television show's season finale in Los Angeles this month. She was also invited to record a demo tape at the Los Angeles music studio of Grammy Award-winning songwriter-producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins.