Strong stage presence: Sask. Singer Rebecca Strong wins Canada's Got Talent

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Rebecca Strong shined under the hot stage lights, through a haze of applause and confetti, and was in her element.

On Tuesday night, the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan-based singer took the stage at the season four finale of Canada's Got Talent in Niagara Falls, vying for national recognition and the million-dollar prize.

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With her cover of Adele's “Rolling in the Deep,” Strong, 20, said she wanted to honor one of her greatest musical inspirations while also showing Canada her own “powerful, raw and emotional” interpretation of the song.

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“I gave it my all,” she said. “At that point, I was just there to perform – for Canada, for everyone back home, for my family.”

And after Canadians across the country cast their votes for their favorite acts of the night, Strong heard the life-changing news on live television – She won.

“I was very emotional,” she said. “I couldn't stop crying (and) I was overwhelmed with a lot of emotions: happy, full of pride, and I honestly couldn't believe it.”

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The next morning she still didn't fully understand it, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face.

“I feel great. It hasn't really hit me yet – I don't think it is me in reality at the moment – but I'm sure it will soon.

“It feels crazy that everyone can come together and support me like that. A year ago I was just at home doing my thing and living my normal life. Of course I performed locally, but Canada didn’t really know who I was.”

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Strong said she felt embraced throughout her Canada's Got Talent season by old and new friends, family and supporters across the country, from family members in the audience to friends from home who brought her to tears with their reaction videos the little children who now approach her in public to talk about their own singing dreams, the fellow artists and competitors she met along the way.

“(Co-finalist) “Eshan Sobti is one of my amazing friends now,” she said. “I’m so grateful that I met him because he’s made this process so enjoyable and he’s one of my biggest supporters and I’m one of his biggest supporters.”

With this tailwind, Strong has big plans for the future of her music career. She dreams of touring, giving back to the Prince Albert community that has supported her at every turn, and being an inspiration to other young Indigenous and northern musicians.

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She also has big plans for her million-dollar prize, in addition to the $25,000 she won for an outstanding audition earlier in the season.

“I'm going to buy a pink truck – that will probably be my first purchase,” she said. “I also want to help my father pay off his debts and retire, and I will probably go on a trip with my family. I’ll put the rest away.”

Strong grew up performing with her family at festivals and concerts in the Prince Albert area.

She remembers her father taking her to the Prince Albert Winter Festival when she was just five years old so they could sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” for an audience in her hometown.

That's where she first fell in love with acting, she said.

But five-year-old Rebecca never imagined that just 15 years later she would have made it this far, or that she would be on the precipice of a whole new world of possibilities.

“I would tell her to be more confident,” Strong said, thinking about her younger self. “She wasn’t very confident – ​​just in general. I would say to take these risks, be who I am, and perform on every stage in a way I've never done before. Never hold back.

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“I definitely feel a lot more confident knowing Canada has my back.”

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