D’ENTRANCE took some time to fill up, but when it was time for the Digicel High School Disc Jockey Competition to start, the atmosphere was electric.

To officially kick off the show at 6:45 pm, there was a tune-for-tune, 10-song mini-showdown for third-place prizes.

Camperdown High stepped in for Vauxhall High, who had a team member missing, but did not pose a threat to Haile Selassie High. The ‘hype man’ continuously did not revv up enough energy to introduce the selections.

After the presentation of prizes, the crowd was given a treat as Voice Mail performed a short set of hits.

For the finale, Mona High won the toss and elected to start the oldies juggling first.

Dropping songs from Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Madonna, and even the hit song from Dirty Dancing soundtrack, I’ve Had The Time Of My Life.

Kingston High took the audience on a local oldies journey with songs from Everton Blender, Sanchez, Half Pint, and Lady Ann with the track Informer.

During early juggling (round two) Mona drew tracks from Sizzla, Busy Signal, Mavado, and Chino.

To answer, Kingston High selected songs from Sizzla as well as Jah Cure, T’Nez, Tarrus Riley and I-Wayne.

For the task round this week, the student disc jockeys were asked to play tunes from artistes whose name, first or last, begin with S.

Shabba, Spragga, Busy Signal, Sizzla, Stephen McGregor, and Specialist made the cut for Mona High.

Kingston High began their set with a track from the competition conceptualiser Sanjay, then went into Earth A Run Red from Richie Spice, then on to Tanya Stephens, Shaggy, Samantha J, Vanessa Slim, Lady Saw, and, of course, Sizzla.

Thereafter, Tifa went through her repertoire for the excited crowd.

Mavado made a loud entrance in the D’Entrance venue, but did no more than one line from four of his songs before leaving the stage.

After that, the fourth round (hype-up juggling) began with Mona High reeling off hit after hit.

Iconic Pop’s summer hit I Don’t Care started the Kingston High hype-up juggling segment, followed by What Does The Fox Say, but did not get the reception for Aqua’s Barbie Girl that they thought they’d get. They rallied with local hits and international pop chart-toppers.

YVP (Young Vibes Production) artiste Vibrant did not get a warm welcome at first as he took the stage, but redeemed himself with his second song selection.

The next guest artiste to go on stage was DeMarco who did Fallen Soldiers, Standing Soldiers, True Friend (Buss A Blank), Continue Wine and Love My Life.

Then came the tune-for-tune round, where Kingston High won the second toss and played first in the ’10 songs each round’ showdown.

While the judges — ZJ Liquid, Fire Ras from Stone Love, and Dre from Renaissance — deliberated, Magnum alum Jonah made an appearance.

A rousing performance by Gage followed, who made way for ANG artiste Kalado to close the show.

The winner was announced by ZJ Liquid — Kingston High.

Kingston High won 15 computers for their school courtesy of Courts Optical and Digicel, and $100,000.

The beaten finalists Mona High won five computers for their school and $50,000.

“Both contestants tonight were the most talented and the most professional throughout the whole competition,” Dr Dre from Renaissance told teenAGE after his judging duties ended. “If I had a sound right now, I would hire both of them.

Dr Dre, along with Fire Ras, were weekly judges and got to see all 15 schools that entered the competition.

ZJ Liquid, who judged the competition for the first time this week, said the contestants surprised him with their skill.

“Di yute dem up on dem game… they can entertain. Not just play music and dem head in a di laptop. We are talking about crowd response and intro to dem song. Dem have a future to me, mi enjoy the juggling. In some parts they were not consistent but overall, I’d give them an 80 per cent,” the disc jockey-turned-recording artiste told teenAGE.

Disappointed with the result, Mona High School contestants Ramone ‘DJ Ramone’ Johnson and Kevar ‘DJ Javi’ Anderson, who get to share $50,000 said the competition brought out a lot of good schools and intense match-ups.

“We feel overwhelmed, it is not as though we came to the first round and crash out, we came a far way, we come second. We’re glad for the support we get from the school tonight and throughtout the competition,” Kevar ‘DJ Javi’ Anderson said.

He said the support did not only come from the school community, as they amassed a Facebook fanbase.

The duo from Kingston High, Steven ‘DJ Steve Cole’ Cole and Shawayne ‘DJ Shawizzle’ Arnold, said the competition for them was about practice becoming perfect. After all, their motto was Excellence, Nothing Else.

“Mi love mi school, dem a support wi from the start,” said hype-man Steven ‘DJ Steve Cole’ Cole when teenAGE asked about the crowd support last Friday.

They said that the computers will go a far away in building the school’s tecnology infrastructure.

“This competition had so many ups and downs. It was even a little controversial — the fact that we have these kids selecting. But it’s something that they are doing already. Something that they can make a living off of. Sound systems are already contacting me to recruit them,” explained Sanjay Ramanand, conceptualiser of the High School Disc Jockey Competition. “This competition is a chance to hone their skills.”

Look out in the next school year for another showdown, and if you or your school is interested in joining next season, e-mail showdownjam@gmail.com.

— MED