(From left) DJ Diamond, DJ Jigga, DJ Cide and DJ Rohan at the first semifinal play-off last week.

The first semifinals in the number one DJ Competition in the Caribbean, Heineken Green Synergy, took centre stage last week with a sizzling hot match-up between deejays Rohan and Diamond.

Prior to the start of the battle, DJ Cide was named as the winner of the last semifinal spot.

At the taping of the TV show, shot before a live studio audience, the anticipation was very high as both Rohan and Diamond had done very well in the quarter-finals.

This round had The 'Strong One' Etana sitting in as the celebrity judge, joining resident judges FAME FM's Colin Hinds and Kurt Riley.

In the first five-minute segment, where they played music from the different genres, DJ Rohan kicked off the proceedings and set a torrid pace.

It was evident that Rohan did his homework as he displayed a well-planned and executed set. The DJ from St Thomas played the right music and said the right things which co-ordinated with the tunes he played. He was so impressive in this segment that resident judge Colin Hinds remarked that had it been the finals, Rohan would have copped the competition.

With Dance Expressions, beautifully clad in their Heineken outfit, working up a storm on stage with some dazzling dance moves, DJ Rohan started off his set with Little Wayne's song A Milli. He took time to show off some awesome turntable skills which had one of the masters of turntable skills, Colin Hinds smiling as he scratched and cut and mixed away.

He punched in Bone Crusher's Never Scared and mixed in sweetly Slow Singing by Mavado which had the crowd jumping in the air. Making 'sly' comments about Diamond, he kept the pace going with Serani's Doh. Rohan evidently was in a 'killing mood' - musically that is - and made his intentions clear as he played the 'burial songs', Tenor Saws's Ring The Alarm and Bush Man's Call The Hearse.

He then told the crowd why the others DJ are calling up his name in their dub plates, by playing the song Movado's I'm So Special which brought the house down.

Diamond, at first, side-stepped the war, and said that he is a DJ who is for the girls and proceeded to create a real party vibes. He had the crowd rocking to songs from Ne-yo and then went into T Pain's Shorty Get Low. All hell broke loose as he played Busy Signal's Pon De Edge which had the Dance Expression girls and others in the audience going wild. The girls got even busier as the Montego Bay-based DJ went into a no-nonsense mood and dropped a hard-hitting song by Vybz Kartel and Black Rhino.

It was straight war as he played a Busy Signal song about an informer and finished strongly with a bomb by Aidonia, Press De Trigger.

Commenting on the contest Kurt Riley said that both deejays played well but in terms of being more prepared he gave DJ Rohan the edge.

Etana said she liked DJ Rohan's skills like his scratching and said she gave him 99 out of a total of 100.

Colin Hines said DJ Diamond gave a strong set which had the girls dancing and praised Rohan for a well worked out battle plan. He added that Rohan's selection trickery was good.

In the tune-for-tune segment, it was DJ Rohan who got out of the blocks like a rocket. Leading off, in his first song he said that he was like a slow poison, he prefers to torture people when killing them (musically) he then played a Vybz Kartel song about "3 o'clock Inna De Morning" which earned him a big forward.

Diamond replied creditably with a 'tuff' song by Kartel about "My Place". Diamond although starting off slowly stepped up his game and made up ground in this round.

Both deejays continued to dish out some wicked selection in this segment and had the crowd well entertained throughout. In fact, the live studio audience loved the contest so much that at the end of it, they kept chanting for more.

The battle between DJ Diamond and DJ Rohan culminated last Friday with each deejay playing a 25-minute segment live on Fame FM between 8:00 pm-9:00 pm on Kurt Riley and Arif Cooper's Groove Theory programme.

Diamond, who played first, got the show on the road with Dennis Brown's Love and Hate. after which he showed his patriotic side with Mavado's Faster than Lightning, a tribute to the athletes, Elephant Man's tribute to the Olympics team and then Nah Lef Jamaica also by Elephant Man.

DJ Rohan changed the tempo, playing some popular R&B hits including Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown's No Air, Keisha Cole's Sent From Heaven. He then played LUST's Just As I Am, Cecile's I'm Waiting, Jah Cure's Sticky and Etana's I Not Afraid. He ended with some hardcore dancehall tunes.

You can vote for DJ Rohan by texting the number 1 to 444- 6935 or 444-MY DJ or for DJ Diamond text the number 6 to 444- 6935 or 444- MYDJ. Voting closes at 12 noon this Wednesday.

The mouth watering second semifinals between DJ Cide and DJ Jigga gets on the way this week. Watch CVM TV at 9:30 pm this Friday or listen FAME FM at 8:00-9:00 pm for the radio segment.

The finals along with the group finals of the competition will take place on October 4 at the Chinese Benevolent Centre on Old Hope Road in Kingston. The winner of the local finals will go up against three other deejays from other countries. The top two will go to the regional finals in Curacao.

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