The Jamaica Observer continues its look at some of the finalists in this year’s Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s Festival Song Competition.

AFTER entering the contest five times, singer Humility believes this year he will finally reap victory.

“The first three times I entered, I ended up in the semi-finals. The fourth time I entered which was in 2012, I ended up in the top 10…and now in 2019. This year, a friend of mine called me and said, ‘Humility, I want you to enter the competition for me this year please’, and just the words that she used and the ‘please’ gave me a push to just enter,” he told the Jamaica Observer’s Splash.

“I think that I have a good chance of winning this competition because my song is different. My song is completely different from the rest, and my song is talking about life on a whole… my song is talking about Jamaica, United States, Canada …every country you can think of in the world. The Most High, the Creator will never give someone more than they can bear, and I know the whole world can attest to that, so you know my song is universal and because it’s different I think I have a really really good chance of winning,” he continued.

Humility, given name Nester Chung, entered the 53rd staging of the competition with Battlefield, which he wrote and co-produced.

The Festival Song Competition was first held in 1966. The Maytals won that inaugural contest with Bam Bam; the 2018 winner was O’Neil “Nazzleman” Scott, with Jamaica A Wi Home.

Humility, whose favourite Festival Song competitors are The Maytals, Eric Donaldson, and Roy Rayon, believes less regard has been given to the competition in recent years resulting in its disintegration.

“They weren’t paying attention to the JCDC (Jamaica Cultural Development Commission) competition, so the less attention placed on it, it is going to deteriorate. If you don’t place emphasis on it and make it more appealing to people, then it will continue to deteriorate. I would just love for them to place more emphasis on the JCDC competition mek young people, middle-aged people, and old people want to enter — once you have a good voice and a good riddim and you want people to hear,” he said.

Should he win, 37-year-old Humility expects his career to bloom.

“JCDC gave us a good platform to launch our talent. So after this competition I’m going to just press on because by now Humility is on his way to becoming a household name. I really entered this competition to get the exposure and promotion, and it has been going very, very well,” he added.