The long anticipated finale of the sixth season finally arrived last Friday. The night, which started at 8:30pm, saw the Denham Town Princess, 2008 Digicel Rising Star, Cameal Davis, opening the show with her widely popular, inspirational Believe. As the audience sat still in eager anticipation, the judges did their round up of the season.
Nadine went first, stating: “It’s the first time we’ve had so many females in one competition, and so many strong females.”
Clyde, who had similar thoughts, commented: “I think it has been a remarkable year… I’m very happy to see how the show progressed through the year. ”
Anthony then concluded: “A nice mix of talent, but in a talent show like Rising Stars you’ve got to have that focal person and that always generates the interest.”
The final two contestants then joined Yendi on the stage for a final joint performance of Alicia Key’s Super Woman. The performance was well received by both the audience and judges alike.
Princess Tia’s final performance as a Digicel Rising Stars’ contestant then followed. Tia performed Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror.
Brown Sugar’s final performance as a contestant came next. She sang Jasmine Sullivan’s Lions, Tigers, Bears showing truly how fearless she really is.
It came time for the big announcement after months of campaigning and intense competition the final two awaited their fate. Yendi finally announced the Digicel Rising Star for the year 2009: “Mitzie “Brown Sugar’ Campbell!”
Princess Tia was presented with her second place, $600,000 cheque following which Brown Sugar with her $1Million cheque amidst a flurry of falling confetti. Brown Sugar then performed for the audience Tanya Stephens’ What A Day.
With the first half of the exciting night over, the girls were then quickly swept away to Mas Camp via stretch limousines where they proceeded to chill in the star packed VIP area backstage.
The line up that performed at Mas Camp included K’Alee, Romain Virgo, Daynea Deacon, One Third, Chris Martin, Cameal Davis, Cavan, Laden and the entire 2009 Digicel Rising Stars top ten. Tessanne Chin joined the Diva Adena during her performance of Black Book, while I-Octane sang Mama you alone with Princess Tia and both Etana and Tifa accompanied Brown Sugar during her performances of Roots and Spell It Out respectively. G Whizz, Assassin and D Major also made appearances on stage.
The night finally came to an end at 1:30am. The little girl from Negril who had bloomed right before our eyes every Sunday evening for the past eleven weeks had this to say as her parting words: “Yes, Digicel Rising Stars is the best experience I’ve ever had in my seventeen years, of life and I will never forget it!”