The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) has selected the thirty entries for the semifinal round of the 2018 Jamaica Festival Song Competition.The thirty songs were selected from among the more than 200 entered in this year’s competition, with the hope of winning a share of the record prize purse of $10 million announced by the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange.The semi-finalists will now go through another round of training organised by the JCDC, an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.

Following the training seminar, the semifinalists will participate in a live face-off — at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Saturday, April 14, starting at 6 p.m. — which will help to determine the ten finalists.The ten finalists will participate in a series of performances across the island, until the ultimate song, the one that will form the soundtrack for Jamaica’s 56th anniversary of Independence, is selected.

The Jamaica Festival Song Competition, which started in 1966 has helped to launch and advance the careers of some of Jamaica’s acclaimed singers and song writers.  Winners of the Festival Song Competition have included Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Decker, Ernie Smith, Tinga Stewart, Eric Donaldson, Roy Rayon, Stanley Beckford and Heather Grant.

See list of semi-finalists: http://jcdc.gov.jm/sites/default/files/publications/semi-finalists_-_son...