BLENHEIM, Hanover

Chadique Young, winner of the 2008 National Gospel competition is to record his rendition of No More Night, courtesy of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

“Dr Chang, I want you to get in touch with me. I want him to record that particular song because I have never heard anybody render that song with the kind of passion as exquisitely. You’ve got to wait until those voice chords stabilise but as soon as that is done I want you to bring him in to Kingston so that we can have that song recorded,” said Golding at Tuesday’s civic ceremony to commemorate the 125th anniversary the late Jamaican national hero, Sir Alexander Bustamante here.

Young was among several students who literally blew Golding away with their talent at Tuesday’s ceremony.

The rendition wasn’t flawless – his voice is changing – but it was, in the Prime Minister’s estimation, brilliant.

“It is just the normal natural thing that we young men have to go through. But don’t worry yourself you are going to be a great singer,” he quipped.

Golding also had high praises for the other performers.

“I want to pay tribute to these youngsters who performed. I want to pay tribute to the teachers who prepared them so well, to the students of Cacoon All Age. All of us here claim to be children of Bustamante but you can make the claim in a special way since you attend the school which Bustamante himself attended. I am so pleased to see the Herbert Morrison musicians here. You are doing very well. I heard you last year and you are improving and I want to commend you, to congratulate you,” he said.

But the highest tribute was reserved for the late national hero.

“Busta was not the first person who fought for the down trodden people of Jamaica there were others before him.

Marcus Garvey came before him. But none of them were as successful and as effective. None of them pierced the armour of the colonial establishment, none of them electrified the people of Jamaica and to win the confidence of those people in the way that Bustamante was able to do,” the PM argued, adding that Bustamante paved the way for the modern labour movement. It was he who paved the way for the modern political system along with Norman Manley.

It was he who paved the way for Independence. The development of a nation is normally defined by persons like Bustamante,” he said.