Candy Isaacs makes history at Festival Song Competition - Women take top three prizes

The Jamaica Festival Song Competition finals on Saturday saw records being made and broken and an all-female dominance inside the auditorium of the all-boys school, Jamaica College.

For the first time in its history, the top three finalists were women, notably in the only year when women outnumbered men six to four. The winner, Kimiela 'Candy' Isaacs, who made it to the top 10 in 2021, walked away with the coveted title with the song One Jamaica. In so doing, she made history as the first visually impaired winner of the competition. To make her victory a little bit sweeter for the blind community, her producer, Sydney Thorpe, is also visually impaired.

Executive Director of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, Lenford Salmon, told THE STAR that he was "very, very pleased at what has happened".

"[Saturday] is such a night of inclusion. I think this will encourage, empower even, the community with those challenges and inspire them to go after those things. So it really makes us feel very happy that we could, via this platform that they have taken advantage of ... no special favours were done to them. Candy entered in 2021 and she is back again. She is really an epitome of [the meaning of] 'if you try and fail, just keep trying'. She called herself a VIP .... 'visually impaired professional' .... and she kept coming. So this is just reward for her. So happy for her," Salmon said.

An elated Isaacs told THE STAR that "after my performance and the response from the crowd, I thought, this is it". Her #One Jamaica, with its themes of unity and empowerment, struck the right chord with the crowd inside the auditorium.

"The inspiration for One Jamaica was all God and the many accomplishments that Jamaica has under its belt. The challenges we face, yet we overcome them and still standing as one nation," Isaacs said.

The other finalists were Auraiya Hope ( Proud Jamaican); Sister Novelette ( Fi Mi Island Home); TrishMaq ( Jamaica is a Big Brand); Trisstar ( Jamaica Jamaica); Pepita ( We are Jamaicans); Lex MD ( Jah Love this Land); Renzzah ( Waa Back Jamaica); Reggae Maxx ( Better Jamaica); and Casey Donaldson ( Sweet Jamaica). Third place went to Sis Novelette and second place to TrishMaq. Isaacs also won the prize for Best Performer. Unfortunately, Trisstar was absent owing to illness.

Salmon shared that he was delighted with the quality of the entries this year and emphasised that the all-female sweep "had nothing to do with their gender at all".

"It was about the quality of their work, not whether they were male or female. We really do believe that it was 10 very good songs, particularly the writing of the songs, and that's one of the things that we feel really proud about. Over the years, we have been encouraging people to put a little more effort in where it begins. It starts with the script. It starts with that lyrical content, and they really came very, very strong this year. And the public recognised it and they loved it, and really supported it this time around," an extremely satisfied Salmon told THE STAR.

The winning songwriter, performer and the producer were awarded prizes totalling $3 million. Emcee for the evening was Jenny Jenny, and the contestants were backed by the Skool band.