Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Left: A contestant in The STAR'S Dutty Wine elimination performs at The Asylum Nightclub, Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston on Tuesday July 25.   Right: A Japanese contestant in The Star dutty wine competition got quite a response during her performance at The second Dutty Wine elimination show, held at The Asylum Nightclub. - file

Yard and foreign dutty wine is a huge phenomenon. Men, women and even children of all races and from across the globe are getting 'dirty' online. VP records is making the most of this by hosting the first online dutty wine competition.

Almost everyone has logged on to youtube.com to see the daring, often hilarious and some good styles of dutty wining from persons who have fallen in love with the song and the dance. Now not only Jamaicans are given the chance to see who can dutty wine the best. The competition started on September 5 and ends October 1 on http://icemedia.com/contests/duttywinecontest.htm.

worldwide champion

Director of Media and Publicity for VP Records, Chris Schlarb elaborates. "We're promoting the song Internationally, we know its big in Jamaica. We have been long promoting our videos on youtube.com. So many persons have videos doing the dutty wine, which we have enjoyed. We decided to take the idea of the dancehall bashment contest and take it online to find the world wide champion. So persons from across the globe could go head to head with each other and Jamaicans".

The eliminations will be decided upon by the persons who know how to dutty wine the best: Caribbean people. Chris Schlarb explains "we're putting on the competition with MTV's Tempo, we use several different ways of choosing the top finalists. We look at the amount of views online, and we have our own panel of which Matterhorn will be involved. They will submit two videos a week that will be played on Tempo's show Pull up Selecta. So ultimately its up to the Caribbean audience".

The winner will receive a Canon Elura 100 Digital Camcorder, to make more home videos. A copy of Reggae Gold 2006, One riddim driven reggae gold. Second prize is a reggae gold catalogue, third prize is the riddim driven clothing gift package. Five runners up get one copy of reggae gold 2006.

Each contestant has only one shot, as only one entry is allowed per person. The winner will be selected on October 5. Who will be the dutty wine world champion? So far there are twelve finalists, one of which has been seen on Jamaica's computer screens at home and in the office. Colombian guys can get dirty with the best of them, one young man has a tape of his expert dutty wine on youtube and his 'Colombian style' is in the competition.

Chris Schlarb expounds "we're just trying to add to the craze of the song which is featured on Reggae Gold. Get people involved with the culture and music".

From the streets of Jamaica to the clubs and Burroughs of the United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada. The attitude is quickly spreading as the 'Dutty Wine' dance has taken flight abroad.

A recent article published in Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday, said 'dancehall fans in this country have taken up the latest dance craze imported from Jamaica. This dance, the Dutty Wine, which takes some amount of skill, is currently experiencing a surge of popularity in West Indian communities in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, as well as in this country.'

According to one female who refers to herself as 'the dutty wine diva', living in Brooklyn, New York, the dance has been "ripping up the clubs and everyone in trying to dance it just looks a way sometimes as they all have varied versions of it (the Dutty Wine dance). But I tell you, the dutty wine is poppin. I also think that's the number one dance out and my friends also like it because they're always trying to follow what Jamaicans do and adapt other cultures, but like I said, this is poppin lockin," she said via an internet chat room.

In addition, many have sought to capitalise on the popularity of this dance as an online Dutty Wine dance competition is now being promoted where all dancers worldwide will have an opportunity to compete for the title of 'World Wide Web champion of the Dutty Wine.'