For the first time since 1966, there will be no Festival or Popular Song Contest. Instead, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, producers of the event, launched a campaign for fans to vote online for their favourite song. Today, the Jamaica Observer publishes the second in a six-part series on past competitions.

ZAC Henry of The Astronauts recalls the thrill he felt when Born Jamaican was announced as winning Festival song for 1979.

“That was joy and jubilation, that was a high for me,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Henry, who co-wrote the song along with fellow Astronaut Donald Wright, says their aim was to “write a song that’s really saying Jamaica”.

According to Henry, back then Jamaicans were more patriotic and he wanted his song to connect with them.

“No matter where I go, Jamaica is my home…” went a line from the song. Henry says it addressed the mass migration of Jamaicans to North America at the time.

The burly Henry and Wright won over the Festival audience with their exuberant stage performance. It was their patriotic song, however, that hit home.

Wright died in a motor vehicle accident in 1998. He was replaced by Michael Beckford.

The Astronauts won the contest three times (once with Stanley Beckford). Henry says he stopped entering the competition because “things got too political”.

He points out that the move to attract young persons to the contest saw things taking a turn for the worse.

“The whole festival thing wants to be revamped. They (organisers) want to get the young interested, but what they don’t get is that mento is the roots and no one wants to admit it,” he said.

Henry is also not pleased with the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s decision not to hold a contest this year. Instead, they conducted an online poll in which persons selected their Top 20 all-time Festival songs.

“Not many people knew about it (the poll), the whole poll thing was not enough. I’m not saying I disagree with the winning song, but it wasn’t pushed enough,” Henry said.