Letter of the Day | Festival Song competitors are shafted
Published:Wednesday | June 17, 2020 | 12:16 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I recognised that the format of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission Festival Song Competition has changed, to the detriment of the amateurs who should have been the basis of the competition. All of a sudden, seasoned artistes are on the prowl in the competition.
Since it is alleged that Buju Banton, Freddie McGregor, Toots and the Maytals, LUST, and Papa Michigan entered, I am not disputing her statement, but I would like Culture Minister Olivia Grange to disclose not to me, but the general populace, where and when did just one of them auditioned?
There were four auditions, so it cannot be business as usual, or mere coincidence, that none of them auditioned in any of these. They have all eliminated those Jamaicans who have entered and spent their precious time and monies preparing their songs. These thousands of Jamaicans must get a voice. By any stretch of the imagination this is wrong, very wrong.
One of the finalists said that he spent $100,000 to do his song. I spent basically the same amount of money to do our song to record it, mix and master it. I entered along with a female friend, so I had vested interest in the competition. The Festival commissioners say they were overwhelmed with the number of persons who entered this year. If one is to add up the number of persons who entered the competition and calculate it by $70,000, you would have been amazed to know how much the common man has lost.
None of the little artistes will get any redress, but they are all eliminated just because they have no clout in the Festival Song Competition. They are just displaced and cast asunder because of their pedigree. This is so unfair. Those who play by the rules always get shafted.
PROBE NEEDED
When it is not payola, it is cronyism, which is the deep-rooted element of corruption on the small musicians of our little island. Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis or Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry should intervene and investigate this series of wrongdoings of the state agency against the grassroots of our society. I don’t want them to insult us by saying they are trying to professionalise the competition at the expense of people, who are almost in abject poverty, using their last dollar.
This cannot be a meaningful effort by the authority to all these poor artistes trying to win the grand prize. All these atrocities were done for some fairly affluent practitioners at the expense of those who could barely find the requisite monies to get their packages together. Subsequently, the rich will get richer and the poor get poorer!
PARIS TAYLOR