Entertainment

Popular songs 'Buss Out'

By MEL COOKE, Freelance Writer

Patrons 'rail-up' at the Fame Road Party, held at Jamalco Sports Complex, May Pen, Clarendon on Saturday Night.- Winston Sill

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE HUGE, GLOSSY pictures of the 10 finalists in this year's bMobile Popular Song Contest mounted at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, on Wednesday night were a good indication of the renewed thrust for the 39-year-old competition.

There was a full house on hand for the launch of the album for this year's competition, entitled Buss Out ­- and that is precisely what the contest is aiming to do.

Plans

To get into the mainstream of popular culture, there is a full slate of road shows, a school tour, visits to popular nightclubs and, as chairman of the contest's steering committee, Junior Lincoln, said, increased airplay and rotation of music videos.

To end the event, clips of the videos were shown.

Before that, though, guest speaker Clyde McKenzie of Shocking Vibes Productions made the objective clear. "The challenge is going to lie in the ability to create post-contest results. People judge contests on the success of the competition after the contest has ended. When everything is over, we don't want artistes to have a three-month shelf-life and, sadly enough, that is now the fate of many persons passing through the Festival Song Competition," he said.

Objective

"Once people can say this guy got a contract with a major company and this guy is selling well in the popular market, we would have achieved our major objective," McKenzie said.

It may be a matter of getting back to what used to happen, as McKenzie recalled seeing a festival float parade in 1966, when the song of the day was 'Bam Bam'. "It was popular. What Toots was doing was popular. However, over the years things took a distinct turn. There was a divergence between what was considered festival and what was considered popular," he said.

The public will have a say in this year's outcome, by way of a phone-in vote to 444-4204. They will record their vote as instructed, each contestant having a number assigned.

Little D is 1 (Worldwide Cry, produced by East House Productions); Alex 'Ras Ihwa' Forbes 2 (Destructive Weapon, produced by Paul Thompson); Lil Joe 3 (Don't Leave, produced by Billy Zee Clarke and Gavin Blair); Donovan 'Anthony Steele' Scarlett is 4 (Ghetto Youths Rise, produced by Devon Simmonds); Mongo Wise and Majah Vandam 5 (Senseless Killing); Richie Influence 6 (No Guns, No Drugs, produced by Mona Open Bible Church); Junior Fearon 7 (Give I Protection, produced by Live Way), Peter Gayle 8 (A New Day, produced by Syl Gordon), Jah More and the Trendsetters 9 (Jamaica, produced by Delroy Green), and Khalil N Pure 10 (Poverty, produced by Andrew Greaves).

The process will be overseen by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ).

Sponsors of this year's Popular Song Contest include bMobile, Frenzi, Tastee (which has been a sponsor for over 20 years), Sun Island, GraceKennedy and Excelsior Water Crackers.