Cloverdale’s Cynthia de Pando is broadening her voice work.
The voiceover artist won two SOVAS awards last year for her work in Spanish language multimedia projects. Now she’s expanded her work to include sports broadcasting too.
Over the summer, de Pando was the Spanish-language live announcer for two Vancouver Whitecap games in the Major League Soccer-Liga MX inter-club competition called the Leagues Cup. Liga MX is the top professional soccer division in Mexico.
She said she was thrilled to be asked to announce the games.
“Being able to feed on the energy of a live audience was enriching and challenging,” de Pando said.
As the games were between the Whitecaps and two Mexican teams, she was hired to be the live announcer for audiences in Mexico.
“So, everything that was said by the English presenter, I had to say in Spanish, not just the words, but also the tone, the delivery, the pace, and the excitement,” de Pando explained. “It was a great experience to do what I usually do in a cosy private recording booth, in front of thousands of people.”
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She said she was amazed to see how many things go on behind the scenes in order to present what the audiences see and hear as an effortless and smooth show.
“Everything was so professionally executed, under the producer’s leadership,” she said. “I couldn’t say a word without my cue to speak every single time. That also applied to the DJ, video technicians, cameramen, and many other people I wasn’t able to see.”
Unfortunately for de Pando, her participation depended on how well the Whitecaps did. They needed to keep winning in order for the club to host more games.
“Sadly, the Mexican teams won both of the matches I was announcing,” de Pando noted. “So (the Whitecaps) were eliminated, meaning no more games for me. But I hope this is just the beginning of what I can be doing locally in B.C.”
A voiceover artists for nearly two decades, de Pando announced two games, the Whitecaps game against Club León on July 21 and their Aug. 4 game against Tigres de México. The ‘Caps lost both games on penalties.
The Club León game went down in history. After drawing 2-2 in regulation, the game went straight to penalties as there is no overtime in Leagues Cup matches. The game set the world record for most kicks taken: 38. The ‘Caps lost 16-15 on penalties.
“It was very funny and no one knew what to do at a certain point,” laughed de Pando. “Never before have there been as many penalties as there were in that match.”
The 2023 Leagues cup ran from July 21 to Aug. 19. All 77 games were held in Canada and the U.S. Inter Miami CF won this year’s Leagues Cup and Lionel Messi was the top scorer in the competition. Messi also won the best player award.
De Pando’s works on about 30 projects a month. Some, such as an audiobook recording, can take up to a month while others can be shorter, a day or a week. She does books, e-learning modules, videos, dubbing, animation, commercials—radio and TV spots—audio description, and other types of voice work, which now includes broadcasting.
