On Feb. 26th 1988 in the city of Wageningen NL a baby girl was born by the name of Antoinette Maria Johanna Electa Thomassen. But the baby with the long name was on the move. She first lived in Driel NL and then moved to Veenendaal NL where she lives today with her mother, father and sister Angelique. This baby was to become Electa Winter, country singer extraordinaire. Electa claims she chose her stage name Winter because she was born in the dead of winter however some think she may have chosen that name because there would not be enough rome on a CD for her full name. At the age of eight Electa auditioned for a youth choir called The Willy B-Kids. Even though she was a year too young for the choir because of her singing ability she was accepted. Electa was not one to rest on her laurels. She wanted more then the choir could offer and the result was a solo career. Her inspiration for this solo career came when she heard a country band play "Grandpa", a song "The Judds" made famous. However Electa also had other things that inspired her, such as a father that likes to write country music and who is now her manager. In 1997 things started to happen for Electa. In that year she started to perform in English and this same year she entered her first Dutch singing contest in Tolbert (Gr) and won second prize in competition against adults. She knew then what she wanted in life and set out in pursuit of her dream. In April 1998 she won an incentive prize in a Dutch singing contest in The Hoeve NL but that was still not enough for this young rising star. She also won a first and third prize in singing competitions in Rhederburg (Gr) and Borculo (Gld). Since then Electa has won too many contests to count. Electa's favorite festival is across the boarder in Germany. It's called the Ellie Brandler country festival in Alphen-Drupt. This festival has been a boon for Electa's career. From there she played venues in neighboring countries like Belgium. You can find Electa in Belgium at the country and western association in Meulbeke where Jan Vermeersch is the owner of this western town / museum. Electa is there every August and in the summer of 2000 she was named as a guest of honour of Wichita, Belgium. In 1999 Electa received a nice present on her birthday. It was the release of her first CD that she had recorded in July 1988 "On Her Own Country Road". 1998 was a turning point in Electa's career. While performing at the Zevenbergen Festival, organized by John Melissen, she met producers from the USA. Even though Electa was only ten years old she was invited to America for the year 2000. Apart from TV appearences, numerous radio shows with Rob Stenders and Eric Dikeb on Radio 3 FM in Holland she still has time to follow her hobbies of line dancing, drawing, painting, playing the guitar and of course travelling which is a great hobby if you are an upcoming country singer. Under the guidance of her father Electa's career is running smooth and he makes sure she has the time for friends and being a kid, even if there are times that Electa is impatient to do more and wants to get going. Watch for this young rising star on TV, Radio or a Record near you!