One wild card out of JCDC Festival Song Competition

Last week, the organisers of the Festival Song Competition announced that two wild cards were being added to this year's competition, but already, one of the wild cards has dropped out of the contest.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange had disclosed at the competition's contract signing that the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) was always seeking innovative ways to make the competition bigger and even better and "add some additional flavour to both our islandwide roadshow and the final night's line-up."

Therefore, in addition to the top 10 finalists, two semi-finalists had been selected as wild cards. These turned out to be Rob Dirschel, whose stage name is 'Rob Deisel'; and Percival Lord, who goes by the name 'Dharma'.

Chairman for the Jamaica Festival Song Organising Committee, Orville Hill, in an interview with THE STAR at the recent launch of the Festival Song album, further explained the reason for the competition's wild card finalists.

"This year, the quality of the entrants was exceptional, and the committee made the decision that, based on this, we would add two additional finalists to the line-up."

Hill, in confirming that one of the wild cards had already dropped out of the competition, said it was regrettable.

"One wild card who was unfortunately not up to the rigours of the competition had to be excused," Hill said, referring to Dirschel.

There are no plans to replace him.

The remaining wild card competitor, Percival Lord, who hails from St Mary, will now join the other 10 finalists equally throughout the remainder the competition.

The other finalists are: Nickoy Green of Manchester, Raldene Dyer of St Ann, Jerome Smith of St Elizabeth, Nester Chung of St James, and Jason Wright of St Thomas. Representing St Catherine are Alero Perrier, Vernon Smith and Mackedah Henry, while Kingston will be represented by Edwin Myers and the Escarpment Road New Testament Church of God Choir.

The Jamaica Festival Song Competition, which started in 1966, is one of the longest-running original song competitions in Jamaica and continues to unearth and showcase several talented individuals each year.