Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter
Tinga Stewart says the festival label restricted him. -File
The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) is getting a musical facelift.
According to Keneshia Nooks, marketing and promotions co-ordinator at the JCDC, they are trying to move away from the worn look of the Popular Song Competition to include fresher reggae and dancehall features.
"People usually know the popular song as a festival song. We did a survey and we have made a lot of changes because what we realised was that a lot of people thought that once they entered it is the end of their careers. They are very talented people, but they just don't see themselves as making a living out of it. Now, what we want them to do is use the pop song competition basically as a push start," said Nooks.
JCDC's website
The JCDC's website describes the organisation as one "with a mandate to develop and promote the creative talents and cultural expressions of the Jamaican people".
It is out of this mindset that the Popular Song Competition, (then known as the National Festival Song Competition) was born in 1963. Soon, The Maytals' Bam Bam was not only one of the most popular festival songs ever, but also a mainstream hit. However, as years went by new generations brought their own set of tastes and festival songs were seen as just that - festival songs with no mainstream flair. This is what the JCDC is determined to change.
"This time it is more a showcasing of reggae and dancehall ... Most of the entries this year, a lot of people are focusing on the new style, but we still got a few with that same 'festival' feel to it," said Nooks.
Entries for the competition opened on December 1 and closed February 28. Judges will sift through the hundreds of entries and choose 30 contestants, then further narrow it down to the top 15 and finally the top 10 who Jamaica will see in the finals on Saturday, July 21.
Nooks continued, "We want to change the way in which we have the competition. We don't want to limit it to festival songs. We want people to get locked into it and for it to capture the mainstream market. We want it to open doors for them. We want to find the link between talent and opportunity."
Talent and opportunity
It's this 'link between talent and opportunity', that one-time popular song winner, Neville 'Tinga' Stewart, failed to see shortly after he won in 1974 with Play De Music.
In a recent Sunday Gleaner interview, entitled 'Festival label hard to wear', Stewart spoke of his disappointment with the competition, the need for its improvement and his own difficulty to cross over because of being known as a 'festival song winner'.
"It did kinda hol' my career down because people saw me as just a festival artiste and only call on me when festival time came around. I was stigmatised. I got over that by singing other songs like Inside My Heart and Cover Me with Ninja," he said.
When asked if he thought Jamaicans accept acts from these song competitions as 'real' artistes, Stewart said, "if you are a popular song winner, I don't know. How can it be a popular song contest if when you win the song is not being heard and is not creating a storm?"
It's this quiet after the festival storm why Nooks says the competition still has some way to go, but the JCDC is determined to make it more attractive.
"It's still a work in progress. We've spoken to a lot of distribution companies who have shown interest in the product. We want to make the CD marketable and the top 10 artistes will be on it and we want them to get a lot of exposure not only locally, but also overseas. We also have producers who work with mainstream artistes who are interested in working with them," she said.
She said in addition to the usual cash prize, the JCDC plans to implement a booking agency that will "book the winner for major shows both locally and abroad and we also plan to do an extensive public relations campaign with the winner for the year".
