The 21st Awit Awards Night was held at the Eastwood City Central Plaza last November 26, 2008 and Gary joined the evening’s biggest winners by bagging one of the event’s major awards for the song “Sana Maulit Muli.” It was his 5th straight win in this prized category since 2004. Gary got the news via text message in Dubai, where he was preparing for the first show of a 4-leg Middle East tour.

Ironically it was only this year that his signature song “Sana Maulit Muli,” co-written with wife Angeli Valenciano, has given him the top prize in this major category. The song was done as a duet with Kyla and it gave them the Best Performance By A Duet award in 2004. And speaking of duets, Gary and Jed Madela also took the year’s top prize in this category for their rendition of “Hard Habit To Break.” This is his 3rd win, the first one was in 1994 for “Muli, “ which he recorded with Regine Velasquez.