Gospel Star Competition Begins on Sunday, July 9

Arrangements are being finalised for the staging of the Gospel Star Competition of the annual Jamaica Festival, scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 9.

The competition, which is produced by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, will be aired on CVM Television, Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica and streamed live on the JCDC’s social media platforms.

The 10 finalists for the competition include Daneille Clarke, Michaela Jacke, Tashaunae Greenland, Shanika McLeggan, Fabian Wright, Donica Dennis-Chambers, Shevelle Clarke, Tamara Hylton, Kemar Eccleston and Oral Lawson.

Gospel Star Coordinator, JCDC, Alicia Taylor, told JIS News that she is impressed with this year’s entrants.

“The line-up of ministers that we have, they are quite dynamic. We are very impressed with them this year. We are quite impressed with the different sounds that we are getting from them as well, and so it should be a good show on Sunday,” she said.

Ms. Taylor pointed out that the contestants were selected from over 100 video entries of songs submitted to the JCDC via email. However, she noted that some entries were not accepted because persons had submitted audio performances.

“Some of them we did not get to go through, because we told them to send video and some persons sent audio. So, the ones who sent the audio we could not use those,” she explained.

Ms. Taylor said that the public will be able to vote for each contestant and through the number of votes polled, the Jamaica Gospel Star will be selected.

The Coordinator said it is important for the public to vote for their favourite contestant.

“Sometimes, we just say that we know that girl will win and that guy we like him and we don’t actually vote. I want to implore people to get up and vote or else your favourite is not going to go anywhere,” she said, adding that each contestant will get a voting number which will be on the JCDC’s social media pages and on the screen during the televised performance on Sunday.

“So, look out for those numbers and you can text vote to the numbers that will be provided,” Ms. Taylor explained.

The Gospel Star Competition is a rebrand of the JCDC’s Jamaica Gospel Song Competition.