Plans under way for Festival Song 2018 competition

Plans are under way for the 2018 staging of the Jamaica Festival Song Competition, which is scheduled to be launched next Thursday in New Kingston.

The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) board commissioners and senior officers met with songwriters and producers at the agency’s head office on Phoenix Avenue recently to discuss the plans.

The talks focused on the vision for the competition, criteria for the selection of the winning song, incentives for winners, and increasing participation from the local music fraternity.

Interim executive director of the JCDC, Orville Hill, said the meeting was important in order to hear the views of the producers.

“The conversation was important so as to get some of the ideas from the producers, who are critical in regard to the Festival Song and as part of the process for it to be more inclusive,” he said.

He noted that the ideas that came out of the talks will be examined “to see to what extent we can incorporate them in the plans for the Festival Song 2018”.

The decision to launch the competition this month is to mobilise singers, writers and producers, “to get them to start creating a product that will ultimately be satisfactory to the Jamaican people”.

He said an early launch will also help to generate public interest in the contest before entries are submitted. He noted that previously, entries were presented before the launch.

Hill informed that a series of regional workshops in January will focus on various areas relating to copyright issues, writing and delivery of the song.