CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — SPICMACAY, a registered student organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that supports Indian classical music and arts, was the best overall performance and audience favorite at the 2026 Global Talent Show.
Gah Rahk Mah Dahng (GRMD) received the award for “Best Cultural Expression.”
The annual homecoming-week event took place Sept. 29 inside Foellinger Auditorium and featured eight competing performances:
- South Asian Fusion A Cappella by Illini Awaaz
- Argamag Huurdin Hurdar by Kyle Enkhzul
- SPICMACAY presents Garaj Garaj Rock and Thillana
- Improv by Spicy Clamato
- K-Pop dance performance by CHOOM
- Golden Wind and Jade Dew by Xiongying Zheng and Weihan Chen
- The Afterimage by Sanah Ramchandani
- Gill-No-Ri by Gah Rahk Mah Dahng (GRMD)
There was also a special guest performance by Iranian music ensemble, Mirage.
Mili Bhatnagar (Ph.D.), international training and programs specialist at Illinois International, led the planning efforts for the show and said overall the event went exceedingly well and cheers from nearly 200 audience members rang throughout the auditorium all through the evening.
“Believe me when I say that our performers put together a really memorable show and we are thankful to them for sharing their art and culture with us and our campus community,” Bhatnagar said. “It was truly a delight and an honor for the Global Communications and Illinois International teams to work with them.”
She added that this year's Global Talent Show was not only about unique cultural expressions, but also unique cultural amalgamations, which she said can only happen at a university that invests in and celebrates internationalization.
Ryan Kreiter, vice president for student engagement for University of Illinois Student Alumni Ambassadors, emceed the event and said this year’s show reminded him of just how many creative and unique identities exist on campus.
“(With these identities) combined, they compile into an excellent production worthy of the great Foellinger stage,” he said. “It was an honor to be a small part of this special Homecoming tradition."
Illinois Senior Photographer Fred Zwicky has taken photos of the annual event for several years now and noted that this year’s show was the best one yet in the many years he has covered it.
“The performance talent level was consistently strong and varied,” Zwicky said. “The production values of the lighting and sound crew was great and it was a great crowd.”
Bhatnagar said she is pumped up to plan next year's Global Talent Show, and one goal she has in mind to help make next year’s show stand out even more is to build extensive relationships with Champaign/Urbana community groups.
“I want to do that so we can have more representation from those groups both as performers and as an audience,” she noted. “I am looking forward to share the true global spirit of Illinois with the larger CU community.”
View photos from the Sept. 29 event at https://uofi.app.box.com/s/agngfrqmfvn83883mos2vrx90q2by5mj?page=1.
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling coordinator at Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.