1 MILLION DOLLAR FOR FESTIVAL WINNER

Over one million dollars in cash and prizes will be up for grabs this Sunday (July 26) when the ten finalists in the Jamaica Festival Song Competition 2009 do battle in the final showdown.   The winning song will collect One Million dollars courtesy of Digicel while the Best Performer will cop $300,000 compliments of Tastee.  The songwriters of the top ten songs will each be presented with an award of $100,000.  Awards for the Most Improved Finalist and for the Most Disciplined Finalist will be determined based on observations from the semi-final round through to Sunday night and the selected finalists will receive a $40,000 gift voucher from Capital and Credit Merchant Bank.

Once again, the public’s opinion carries a lot of weighting in the selection of the winner as this will be decided through a combination of text votes and scores by a panel of judges.  Festival Song Co-ordinator Germaine Raymond, says based on the objectives of the competition, it is essential that all Jamaica gets involved, “We are seeking to identify a song that will re-energize  a spirit of celebration and nationalism in our country, a song for the people selected by the people”.   Ms. Raymond added, “It is our aim to sustain that spirit way beyond the Independence period so it is important to us that the winning song is widely embraced”.

This year’s competition is being staged under the theme ‘I Believe in Jamaica’ and features Nathan, Pretty Rebel, Cris Christy, Calvin McFarlane, Stacia, Oba Simba, CC Blake, Tinga Stewart, Winston Hussey and Lester Lewis & Singing Rose.  All the finalists have been involved in a series of workshops and other developmental activities including an island wide promotional tour. Major sponsors Chase Fund, along with Tastee Jamaica Ltd, Cooyah and a number of media entities are partnering with the JCDC on the event.

 The final show is scheduled for the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre with guest artistes Busy Signal, Christopher Martin and 2008 winner Roy Rayon.