Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2016 pageant winner, Kyesha Randall, used sign language to thank God for her victory at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in St Andrew on Sunday.

“ God deserves the glory for all of this,” Randall, who represented the parish of St James, told the Jamaica Observer shortly after her crowning.

In a keenly contested pageant, Randall beat 12 other girls to secure her title.

“I love pageants and this is my fourth time entering one. I was Miss UWI 2013-2014 (she studied Mass Communication at CARIMAC), and I also made Top 12 at Miss Jamaica World, and Top 25 at Miss Universe Jamaica last year,” said Randall.

Randall, who copped the sectional prize for Most Culturally Aware, said winning the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen title meant a lot to her.

“It really does mean a lot for me. Now I hold an anchor and a torch for everyone to run with. I’m concerned about the crime in St James and I want to build my community. I want to impact young people to let them know they hold the power to change their surroundings,” she said.

The former Mt Alvernia High and Montego Bay Community College student said that values her parents instilled in her have helped her throughout her life.

“Love and hope, respect and being kind. Those are the values they instilled in me. I’ve always brought all of that forward. I entered the Festival Queen competition because I was coming off a disappointment of one of my biggest dreams. It was easy for me to have fallen into a slump and I didn’t. There was an opportunity open and I had to present myself. Where opportunities are you just have to go to them and grab them. And this was there at the time,” Randall said.

Finishing in second place was Miss Westmoreland Feleisha Samuels, while Miss St. Mary Monique Robb came third.

Randall won for herself, among other prizes, $365,000 towards her national project courtesy of Lasco Financial Services and the Digicel Foundation; a cash prize of $400,000 and a trophy from the JCDC.

Other sectional prizes were: Monique Robb, Ms St Mary — Most Congenial; Feleisha Samuels, Ms Westmoreland — Most Active in Community; Godiva Golding, Ms St Catherine — Most Poised; Kacia Whilby, Ms Trelawny — Best Performance; and Kristina Newby, Ms Portland — Most Popular on Social Media.

Michael Nicholson, pageant coordinator said this was the second time that St James had won the Jamaica Festival Queen title.

“The first winner from St James was Toni Shae James who won in 2003. A lot of planning has gone into this event and I would like to thank the Events division of the JCDC for working together to make it happen. Thanks to the sponsors who were really generous this year. They have been good to us,” said Nicholson.

The evening saw performances from all-female band Adahzeh, who treated the audience to creditable interpretations of Walk Away From Love, My Boy Lollipop and Feel Like Jumping.

Former Digicel Rising Stars winners One Third also did well with Hoobastank’s The Reason, Toto’sAfrica and their latest single Here Comes the Night.