Sunday night’s performances were worthy of any church altar, as the six remaining contestants humbled and moved the Courtleigh Auditorium congregation.

The sensational six brought the house down on Gospel night, leaving the Digicel Rising Stars’ host, Lady Rennae asking for a special “Church Development Fund” offering to be taken up after their memorable and moving performances blew the roof off the auditorium.

But, prior to these performances was another heartfelt moment, this time, a sad one, as it was announced that Latoya Chambers and Phylea Carly were in the bottom two. And after both ladies sang their hearts out, the judges decided that Latoya’s hunger for the title was stronger, and sadly, Phylea was sent home.

Outstanding Performances

Camaley brought Lady Rennae and a few audience members to tears after her powerful and heartfelt performance of Lord I Believe In You. After singing the song in both English and Spanish, in a moving show of strength and faith, with the aid of her cane, she stood up on the last line of her song, earning a standing ovation from the congregation.

And though the wounded Judge Anthony Miller — who had just seen his Wild Card, Phylea, go home – thought that Camaley’s performance sounded cheesy, Judge Nadine Sutherland shared the sentiments of her fellow judge, Clyde Mckenzie, and of the audience when she said: “Because you are a Christian you conveyed that so well, I sat here and I felt everything… and I learnt so much about you and your conviction and your pain… so I thank you for this moment.”

The ever-impressive Jermaine Michael pulled off the popular Glacia Robinson hit, Hold My Hand. All three judges agreed that he has real star quality, and gets increasingly better every week, with Clyde stating “That was pretty convincing… that was strong. It shows Nadine’s Wild Card is no Joker!”

And Nekorah took the show and the night with her performance of Midnight Cry. As she powerfully belted out this hymn book staple, the audience stomped, clapped and sang along with her, and somewhere in the congregation a tambourine could be heard. Even the judges were impressed and moved. And while Miller, who was clearly in love with the performance, stated that last week she was a cougar and this week she was Mahalia Jackson, and Nadine revealed that she had prophesied to herself that Nekorah would blow the roof off with the right song, Clyde went into a bit more detail when he said: “You must be bipolar!”

Judges Comments

Toni’s performance of Alabaster Box brought some members of the congregation to their knees, but had a lesser but still moving effect on the judges, except for Killer Miller, who stated wickedly “I thought the song was as dowdy as her dress tonight.”

And after admitting that Gospel is not her forte, Latoya still gave a humbling performance of You Raise Me Up. And while this worked for the audience, Nadine and Clyde, Miller calmly stated his issue: “Like Latoya I don’t know that much about Gospel… I thought you were clinical and cold.”