In wake of the controversy and discussion which has come about since Wednesday’s announcement that the Festival Song Contest, a staple of the annual Independence celebrations, will not be held this year, music insider and a former member of the selection panel Clyde McKenzie is suggesting that perhaps the time has come to reformat the contest.

He posited that in its current iteration, the Festival Song Contest no longer reflects the mood of today’s Jamaica and this is perhaps the reason behind the dwindling level of support from stakeholders and interest groups including the writers and artistes.

“For me, the Festival Song Contest that currently prevails is not relevant to the musical taste and mood of the society. For too long we have been creating this disposable music, only lasting for a very short time, that has no connection to the majority of Jamaicans. That for me is the big challenge to the contest,” McKenzie told the Jamaica Observer.

He shared that the big question that needs to be asked and all the discussion centre around is what purpose does the contest serve and who benefits from the staging of the event.

“When festival song was in its heyday, the musical and media landscape was figured quite different than it is today. The first thing is that government as the producer of the contest, through the JCDC [Jamaica Cultural Development Commission], owned one of the two radio stations and the only TV station. So it had the means to promote the event for a captive audience. That picture has changed dramatically.”

“Then there is the sound of the festival song. That mento, folk sound which we have come to associate with the festival song is no longer the popular music of the day. When the likes of Toots and the Maytals, Eric Donaldson and The Jamaicans were winning that was the sound of the times. But now it has become irrelevant and therefore is no longer resonating with the Jamaican people. Artistes are also seeing the competition as a kind of kiss of death as they are not able to use it as a springboard to a popular music career. It makes sense to take the Festival Song Competition out of its misery,” McKenzie added.

He suggested that if the decision is taken to do away with the current format of the competition, the authorities could look to drawing from the popular music of the time to create a song to drive the Independence celebrations.

“The Jamaican public could be asked to choose a festival song from the pool of music popular since the start of the year. So what you would have is more of a popular song contest. The call would be issued to all artistes to submit their work and be open to selection for the top song. I know people will say some of the songs do not have the patriotic flavour, but the truth is the most popular festival song, Cherry Oh Baby by Eric Donaldson [1971], has nothing to do with Jamaica and celebrations. It was a love song that has endured for over half a century and is still popular,” McKenzie said.

Entertainment and Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange announced in Parliament that the Festival Song Competetion would not be held this year, citing the poor quality of the entries submitted for consideration.

Veteran reggae artiste Freddie McGregor, who was a member of the five-member panel chosen to arrive at the top 10 finalists, quickly jumped to the minister’s defence in wake of the announcement.

McGregor told the Observer that having listened to the entries and being sorely disappointed with the submissions, the panel conveyed their dismay to Minister Grange and the recommendation was made to abort the compeition rather than go with the sub-par entries.

“Is Jamaica 60 wi talking about! Those songs that we listened to could not go out there and represent the music industry after 60 years of Independence…they just could not, it would be a shame and disgrace,” McGregor said.