KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, has announced that the Jamaica 60 Festival Song Competition will go ahead as planned.

The decision was made during Monday’s Cabinet meeting. It was decided that the competition should go ahead under amended rules which will see the re-opening of entries.

Last week, Grange had announced that the competition was struck off the calendar of events for the island’s Independence celebrations. She had cited poor quality of entries as the reason for the competition’s suspension, similar to that in 2017.

According to the minister, the panel that usually selects the finalists for the Jamaica Festival Song Competition had said that it was unable to choose ten suitable songs from among this year’s entries. The panel had reportedly given the nod to three entries, which was not a sufficient number for a competition.

READ: Festival Song Contest off, again

Grange said entries will now re-open for a limited period of one week starting Tuesday,June 14 as the panel seeks to identify an additional seven songs for the finals.

The minister encouraged people with a good song that they believe can rally the nation to submit their entries.

“We are looking for that catchy, infectious, or inspirational song set to a Jamaican beat that will be on the lips of every man, woman, and child this Independence,” she said.

“We are waiving the entry fee and we look forward to receiving entries by Tuesday, June 21 at midnight via the online entry portal at the JCDC website (www.jcdc.gov.jm),” the minister added.

The minister further urged entrants to pay attention to the comments of members of the selection panel who found that earlier entries contained inaccurate lyrical content, infringed copyright, was off-key, poorly recorded, and even contained lyrics that glorified another country and culture.