KINGSTON, Jamaica – Winston Hussey is the winner of the Jamaica Festival Song 2009 competition which was hosted on Sunday (July 26) at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre under the theme “I Believe in Jamaica”. Hussey emerged from a field of nine other contestants to claim victory with his entry “Take Back Jamaica” and took home the one million dollar cash prize and a cellular phone from Digicel Jamaica Ltd, the Stage Records Trophy and a gift certificate from Cooyah.
Other prizes included “Best Performer” which was awarded to Calvin McFarlane, performer of the entry “Jamaica Nuff Niceness”, who took home $300,000 and a Trophy courtesy of Tastee. An award of $40,000 from the CHASE Fund was presented to Oba Simba for being the ‘Most Disciplined’ finalist, while Stacia, was named the ‘Most Improved’ and collected $40,000 courtesy of Capital and Credit Financial Group.
A special incentive was introduced for songwriters in this year’s competition and saw $100,000 presented to eight of the ten finalists who also wrote the entries they performed.
All ten finalists were given gold medals and certificates which were presented by Delroy Gordon, Executive Director (Acting) of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC).
The other finalists included Cris Christy with “Jamrock, Land of the King”, Pretty Rebel with ‘Persistent’, Nathan with “The Vibes”, Lester Lewis and Singing Rose with “I Love you Jamaica”, C.C Blake with “Love a Likkle Island Yah” and past competition winner, Tinga Stewart with “Make the Best of Today”. Guest performances from Busy Signal, Christopher Martin and 2008 winner Roy Rayon completed the proceedings.
Through this year’s competition, the JCDC aimed to identify a song that invokes a spirit of celebration for Jamaica Festival 2009 and has relevance beyond the festive period.
