SANDALS Ochi Beach Resort featured aplenty in the finals of the ENCORE (Entertainment Now Creates Opportunities Rewarding Excellence) Talent and Model Search Competition held at its Ocho Rios location on Saturday night.

“It was a privilege for us to host the 2015 ENCORE finals, but I must admit feeling some extra joy having done so well,” Ramel Sobrino, general manager Sandals Ochi Beach Resort, told the Jamaica Observer.

Best Instrumentalist – Roshane Marsh; Best Dancer, Solo – Tyrone Barnett; Best Vocalist, Male – Romario English, Best Vocalist, Female – Bernice Brown; Best Model, Female – Nicota Cooper; and Best Model, Male – Andrew Smith all hailed from Ocho Rios. Negril captured the remaining two categories with Tricia-Gay Smith-Macintosh and the duo of Nicholas Waller and Tevaughn Bryan taking Best Spoken Word and Best Dancers, Group, respectively.

The nine will head to the international finals of the ENCORE Talent and Model Search Competition scheduled for September 18-19 at Beaches Negril and Sandals Whitehouse where they will vie for the grand prize of a one-year performance contract with the hotel.

“The prize gives them the exposure their talent may never have received,” said Joel Ryan, Sandals group manager of entertainment.

The final results don’t tell the whole story. It may have seemed to be a hometown advantage situation, but several of the performances were all top-notch, giving the judges some hard decision making and keeping the audience guessing to the very end. The first of the hotly contested categories was Spoken Word, cementing itself as a crowd favourite and proving its worth as it returned for 2015. Eventual victor Tricia-Gay Smith-Macintosh delivered an inspiring monologue, which saw stiff competition from Jordana Wilson and Christina Stewart. Wilson’s comedic piece centred on the extravagantly ignorant character of schoolteacher Miss Solomon, while Stewart humorously attacked the topic of bleaching.

Things were also tight in the Best Vocalist, Female category, as Shelly-Dean Bartley went head-to-head with Bernice Brown. The petite Bartley belted out a version of Listen worthy of Beyonce herself that gave Brown’s performance a run for its money. Other categories such as the Best Dance, Group and Solo, were pretty clear-cut. Waller and Bryan impressed with well-choreographed dancehall moves that included a taunt to their rivals. Barnett, the Solo winner, received one of the several standing ovations, with a confident modern interpretive dance routine, which saw him jump onto the judges’ table for maximum effect.

“I loved every minute of it,” Ryan said at the end of the night.

Ryan also used the night to drum up support for the victims of Hurricane Erika in Dominica by pledging US$1,000 on behalf of all the Sandals Resorts International entertainment directors and urging donations through the Sandals Foundation.

— Rory Daley