The winners of the National Song Competition 2014
Nello Player and TR Shine are among the top vocalists in the Jewel. This past weekend, they energized the crowd at the Memorial Park during the national song competition 2014 with their original songs. At the end of the marathon competition, the defending champs retained their titles as Patriotic and Carnival Song winners and were joined by newcomer, Cecil Gill from the south, who captured the title as Junior Champ. Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Eighteen entries were submitted and following the dynamic performances on stage by Belizean artists in the junior and senior sections of the National Song Competition for 2014, the winners were announced. The competition was generally male-dominated as both Nello Player and TR Shine retained their titles as patriotic and carnival song champs. Newcomer, Cecil Gill Junior, won in the junior category.
Joseph Stamp Romero
Joseph Stamp Romero, Creative Arts Development Officer, ICA
“In the Belize Song Junior we had Cecil Gill Junior win the Champion. We had Tara Gill from Dangriga being the second place winner. In Belize Song Senior, we had Nello Player regaining his title. We had Ernestine for the first time in that category making history for being a double-dipper, but she walked away with second place. In the carnival category, TR regained his title and Ernestine ranked second again.”
Nello Player, Winner, National Song Competition 2014
“I think it is kinda hard to bring out a song that has that message in there and having it have that appeal so that people can remember the lyrics. I don’t expect everybody to remember the lyrics of my song, but I know they are going to take from there the chorus and few of them will even venture off and know a great deal of the verse, but to fulfill the song competition criteria of including all the information so forth, it is hard to balance, come up with that song that has that appeal and still has the message.”
TR Shine
TR Shine, Winner, National Song Competition 2014
“Personally, I can tell you that last year’s tune still bigger than this year one…cause every carnival mas band yo go as yo put on McCauley everybody gone off. When yo hear this new one yah, dehn have to adjust to it so I watch the response of the crowd out there the night because we deh get into the half way into the song and by the time I reach the part weh ih say run to the marker…then they get the sense of the song. But to just keep it ina dehn ears, I stay on the radio mein.”
The competition included regional eliminations says Creative Arts Development Officer, Joseph Stamp Romero. It saw the participation of more artists from across the country providing a platform compete at the district level prior to the final showdown this past Saturday.
Joseph Stamp Romero
“This year we decided to do regional elimination competitions. We had four zones and we went to the zones and had the competitors before live on stage. In some cases we had competitors who used a band because of the nature of their particular songs or the culture of where they were. Dangriga is known for having the live song component. Others used tracks and so we had competitors for the first time go head to head on a live stage before the judges.”
There were also new features of the competition including People’s Choice and Break-out Artists for the Year.
Joseph Stamp Romero
“When we look at people who are new to the competition, coming into the show for the first time and the level of the competition. We saw people who brought different elements to the competition. We saw dancers being used before, but this year, it was particularly different. People were systematic in how they actually carried out their performances. I think they studied each other a lot so the quality was high.”
Nello Player and TR Shine were the People’s Choices for Belize Song and Carnival Song respectively. Breakout Artist for the Year in the Belize Song Category was Shanneka Moir and Earlyn Hutchinson; while breakout artist of the year for the Carnival Category was Leslie “Bastic” Jenkins. All these artists received five hundred dollars cash. Duane Moody for News Five.
