The Jamaica Observer‘s Entertainment Desk continues with the 33rd of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

FOR more than three decades, the Tastee Talent Contest — like its forerunner the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour — was the vehicle which brought Jamaican talent to the fore.

Howard McGowan, a former judge at ‘Tastee’ and entertainment editor at The Gleaner, spoke glowingly of the competition that started in 1972 and ended in 2013.

“Tastee Talent Contest is the single greatest entertainment event since Independence,” McGowan told the Jamaica Observer.

He was quick to point out that Tastee Talent Contest was different from its predecessors and those that followed.

“Even though I wasn’t around at Vere Johns, but from what I glean, it was part and parcel to promote Vere’s radio show as well. The radio show would ensure the winners had a vehicle to perform,” said McGowan.

“It (Tastee Talent Contest) ran for 34 unbroken years. It unearthed some of the greatest entertainers both in reggae and dancehall, and it was the only competition of its type that embraced all areas of talent — musicians, singers, dancers, instrumentalists, you name it. Most other talent pieces focused on one or two areas.”

The event was held at the car park of Tastee’s Patties Cross Roads, St Andrew, headquarters.

According to McGowan, the contest was the idea of jazz musician and bandleader Sony Bradshaw who pushed the concept to founder of the Tastee’s patty empire, Vincent Chang.

“When it came about in ’79, there was precious little happening on the scene. It is for that, not making patties, that Vincent Chang was awarded the Order of Distinction,” said the former judge.

In addition to McGowan, the judges were Winston Barnes of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), who doubled as emcee; and Basil Walters of the Daily News newspaper.

“It was a panel of judges drawn from the media in the early days, and those persons adjudicated and, by and large, they got it right. When you think where it was located, and there was not one bottle thrown at the judges. We held sway for all of those 34 years — bar one, when we tried a semi-phone thing and accredited 35 per cent of the votes to the phone-in thing and we quickly reverted to our judges thing. If we had gone with what was being projected by the phone in — the reputation of Tastee’s would have been shot,” McGowan recalled.

Tastee Talent Contest’s winners’ enclosure include Nadine Sutherland, Diana Rutherford, Joan “Jojo Mac” McKenzie, Bryan Thompson (from Bryan and Tony Gold), Chevaughn Clayton, Mr Vegas, dancehall quartet TOK, gospel singer Glacia Robinson, one-legged dancers Father and Son, and make-up artist Henry Brown.

“Henry Brown went to Hollywood and became a top make-up artist there,” McGowan disclosed.

Paul Blake (former lead singer of Blood Fire Posse), Papa San, Cobra, Yellowman, and actress Claudette Pious all graced the Tastee stage.

McGowan lists the inaugural staging as his most memorable.

“We saw a precocious nine-year-old young miss [Nadine Sutherland] from Above Rocks, and in the elimination segment she lit up the stage. I remember Winston Barnes, who was the emcee/judge at the time — and I conferred at the time, said: ‘This is a talent going miles to see’. She came back in the finals and did Buckingham Palace. Paul Blake, I think changed his song, for the final and he lost by two points, Yellowman came third. I am yet to see a final that was that close and unearth three top stars,” he said.

As for the Tastee Talent Contest’s legacy, McGowan believes it is two-fold.

“It was the only talent competition of its time that opened the doors to all areas of entertainment and talent, and it was Mr Chang’s way of giving back to society as all events were free to the public,” he said.