Singer Lorna Gordon is now one million dollar richer due to her powerful vocal range, consistent commanding stage presence and exceptional entertainment value. All these factors combined to land her the title of the 2010 Tastee Talent Trail which ended at Cross Roads on Thursday evening.

There was no match for the British-born contestant whose mother and Jamaican father are also singers. Her superior talent prevailed throughout the rounds, but her crowning performance came on her final appearance which left everyone breathless after she belted Whitney Houston’s Didn’t We Almost Have It All.

“I think it’s a privilege to be reaching this far because of the thousands of people who auditioned for the Tastee Talent Trail, I am one of the luckiest to have reached this far and I think I give it my best. If I win tonight I am going to be so happy,” she told the Observer minutes before she was declared the winner.

Having taken it all, moments after she began her reign, Lorna Gordon was so overwhelmed at her triumph, she struggled to hold back her tears, but to find words to express herself.

“I don’t even what to say, I’m just so happy,” she admitted. “My blood, sweat and tears went into this and I really appreciate it. And everybody who voted for me and Tastee for giving me this opportunity. I am happy for the other contestants with whom I had the most amazing time. Whatever happen, we are all winners and I love everybody and big up to Tastee, big up to the band Unique Vision. They are truely amazing and I am so happy to have performed with them” added Gordon graciously.

“This is the start of a career,” the singer whose family hails from Linstead, St Catherine, noted. “I’ve always said, what happens after Tastee is what’s more important because Jamaica has to know me. And internationally, they have to know me as well.”

If the Tastee Talent search was all about singers and deejays, then it would be the biggest surprise of this year’s series that one of the front runners, Andre Lee, didn’t place second.

Lee, who perhaps was the most original contender had to settle for third place and the cash prize of $50,000. This was because the innovative poetic ensemble COLAS, came on strong towards the end of the competition and brought a new flavour, vigor and image to dub poetry. For this they were rewarded with the $250,000 cash prize to share among themselves as the second place winners.

Given his enthusiasm and dynamism, one can’t help but think that Lee, the contestant who hails from Rockfort, will walk in the footsteps of King Yellowman, the first winner of this competition who in 1978 finished third in the grandfinals behind Nadine Sutherland and Paul Blake, first and second place winners respectively.

“After this I am going to take this career to the streets, to the radio, to the TV, and capitalise on this opportunity and the fame I got from this competition. By next year mi a start record,” promised Andre Lee the newest deejay discovered along the seven months long talent trail.

That said, all six finalists did themselves proud and justice to the organisers, promoters, sponsors, the adjudication process from the pre-judging to the final judging. So much so that one get a sense that it is not yet over for dancers Supreme Blazers, singers Jermaine Bryan and Shelly-Dean Bartley. Their competitiveness is highly convincing and suggest that there is far more to come from all of them.