Persons who are interested in entering the 2021 Jamaica Festival Song Competition have until midnight, today, May 31 to submit their entries to the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s website, www.jcdc.gov.jm.
The competition, which regained international popularity last year with Reggae superstar Buju Banton’s win, is Jamaica’s longest running professional song competition and has produced many notable Reggae artistes over its almost six decades.
“We are excited for this year’s staging of the Jamaica Festival Song Competition as we have been receiving exceptional feedback from the public and our potential entrants. The deadline for entries is midnight tonight, so all our entrants need to be in the final mix down mode of their winning songs at this point to still qualify to be a part of this year’s competition,” said Mr. Orville Hill, Chairman of the Jamaica Festival Song Committee.
He continued, “We are also excited because this will be the first Festival Song competition being held completely virtually, from entry to final show, in keeping with our National social distancing protocols due to the COVID 19 Pandemic.”
“This is our nation’s longest running original song competition and the winning song will drive our upcoming 2021 Independence Celebrations, so entries should encapsulate the Jamaican spirit, generate public interest and patriotism and ignite the country, bringing us together to celebrate as one. This competition is open to all Jamaican artistes, at home and abroad, and so this year we look forward again to a good mixture of established and emerging artistes competing for the top song that will rock the nation,” Hill said.
Persons who are interested in entering the 2021 competition should note that they will need to upload a lyric sheet and their entry song in a MP3 file format, which should be four minutes or less. The Jamaica Festival Song competition carries an entry fee of $1,000 JMD per entry.
“We are charging a small fee of $1000 for the Festival Song Competition as it is the only professional competition on the JCDC slate. Just like last year, we are looking forward to having some very big names in the music industry participating, as the level of interest shown so far has been very good. I want to wish all the participants in all the competitions the best of luck – may their dreams be fulfilled," Hill said.
The Jamaica Festival Song Competition, which started in 1966, has helped to launch and advance careers of some of Jamaica’s acclaimed singers and songwriters. Winners of the competition have included Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Decker, Eric Donaldson, Roy Rayon, Buju Banton and Stanley Beckford.
