Contestants invited to enter Brukdown competition

It may be a month away but our friends at the Institute of Creative Arts are using this time to get prospective contestants prepared for the second annual Brukdown Song Competition. The contest is open to Belizeans countrywide of all ethnicities, ages or musical experience. Entries may be in any language provided there is an English or Kriol translation within the song. In 2004, eight persons entered and by the end of the competition well-known Kriol artist Leela Vernon walked off with most of the cash prizes. This year Vernon returns hoping to retain her title, but who knows? ICA Director William Neal expects the contest will get very interesting. Today Neal took the opportunity to invite Belizeans to compete.

William Neal, Director, ICA
?We thought that last year?s competition met the basic objectives, which was really just to get an interest or and a buzz around Brukdown again as a true original genre to really have people experiment with it. A lot of the younger artists are coming up, but they don?t see Brukdown as one of the areas of music that they would create in. So we wanted to provide an incentive for people to really dig into Brukdown and don?t let it just die, use it as a vehicle for expression.?

?What we are hoping is that people will start creating original songs. Brukdown is not really a very complicated form of musical expression. The idea is really to get a simple tune that people can jump in and very readily enjoy the story that is being told and participate, because Brukdown in itself is associated with the Christmas Bram, and that?s why we keep it close to Christmas. But the idea is really to get people and let it be a form of celebration, and hopefully it will continue to be something uniquely Belizean that we can all look forward to.?

Deadline for submission of CDs and tapes is December ninth, 2005. The Brukdown Song Competition takes place on December twenty-third.