Cheryl 'Chetenge' Clarke last year's winner
THE NAME-change roller coaster continues this year with the Jamaica's National Song Contest. After reverting to the original name of National Festival Song contest last year, its organisers have once again decided to revert to naming the contest National Popular Song Competition.
The National Popular Song competition 2000 was launched last night at Christar Villas, Hope Road, King-ston. All the finalists in this year's competition were on hand and were introduced to the media. In attendance also was last year's winner Cheryl 'Chetenge' Clarke, who was not selected this year.
The finals of the event is set for July 15, at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre.
According to Ms. Marcia Hextall, executive director, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), the decision was taken by the committee which oversees the song competition to change the name this year. "They thought there was the need to widen the scope if it is to be a songwriters' contest. We needed to establish a forum for pop songs to promote a particular festival and not to find a festival song. The name 'Festival' narrowed the mandate of persons who would enter. The re-examination took place based on the products which were presented last year," she said.
She also said, the focus now was to get the songs heard and videos will be released soon. According to the executive director, the JCDC is in the process of finding persons to stage road shows in various parishes in association with the JCDC.
The prize money for this year's winning songwriter will be $150,000. "The idea is to focus more on the development side rather than the prize money," she said. The competition will be offering second and third place prizes in the various categories.
