Windsor Parking Garage Attendant Becomes Globally Famous On New Mobile Social Network

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Windsor’s Ray Ligaya is famous. Vine famous.

The 20-year-old singer/songwriter and attendant at a parking garage in Downtown Windsor has gained an enormous following on Twitter-owned social network Vine, which is promising to replace Instagram with its 6-second videos.

“My friends had Vine before and on my birthday, March 23rd, we we’re at the bars and they were ‘Vining’. I made an account to watch them. I’ve been an odd/weird human being for a long time. It actually started out with my cousin and I saying random things and make up random words.” says Ligaya who created a persona that has attracted 57,000 global followers to date — a huge number for the emerging social network.

Vine started out as an iPhone app, launched by Twitter in January, and has grown steadily to include an Android app, hashtags, user tagging and trending topics. By April, Vine became the most popular iOS video sharing app by users and Ligaya’s vines began to gain a serious following.

Ligaya’s Vines keep trending too. “There was a Vine I posted when I first saw myself on the popular page about a month or so ago. A week after that I was on the popular page here and there, not as often. But now every time I post a Vine, it hits within the first 3 pages on Popular Now. It’s crazy how many people support me.”

Outside Vine, Ligaya is into writing and singing ambient rock/R&B/pop and has released his latest single “Light” to YouTube (watch here).

Ray Ligaya was born in Mississauga and moved to Windsor as a young child. He went to Holy Names High School and later took business at the University before deciding to settle on what he loved: music.

Ligaya’s most popular Vines include “Da Human Emoji” where he dresses up like an emoticon, or his “Lip Sync” series where he’s in front of a microphone lip syncing popular songs outrageous. His popular vines have garnered hundreds of thousands of combined likes. “The fans absolutely love the way I lip sync popular songs and create a human version of an emoji using my faces and noises!”

Perhaps Ligaya’s most popular creation is the word “Mansuki” — the meaning of which is elusive. “I guess the word Mansuki caught on and using my Filipino accent, the fans love it!” he says.

In the future, Ligaya hopes to collaborate with Vine user Eric Dunn who lives in Florida. Ligaya signed with an LA company to collaborate and develop a revenue stream and hopes to be sponsored or endorsed due to his explosive popularity.

“I know if I continue Vine my fan base will grow larger and larger. This will only be beneficial for my music. I am waiting until I am ready to go full throttle with my music so I can easily book shows and have many fans come to them.”

Ligaya, who has a girlfriend, says he’s flattered by all the attention by girls around the world who ask to marry him. “I don’t think that would stop them though from getting their attention! Even my friends think it’s weird to see myself as ‘Vine Famous’.”

Ligaya says he’s still amazed by how popular his creations have become. “I never thought my Vines would blow up like this. When I posted my first few Vines and noticed people started to like them, I instantly got hooked and kept going. It feels unreal and I feel so blessed to have such a huge audience constantly liking, commenting and scrolling through my Vine profile.”

You can download Vine at this link (be sure to follow us, @windsoriteDOTca) and follow @Ray Ligaya.

Ligaya also has a Facebook fan page.

Watch some of Ligaya’s other funny Vines: