Akeen Fennell, 2024 Digicel Rising Stars winner, credits the competition for making him a much bolder person.

A certified bartender and waiter, Fennell’s journey in the competition was not an easy ride.

“Finally have an idea what Buju Banton meant when he said, ‘It’s not an easy road, many see the glamour and the glitter and dem think a bed a rose.’ Campaigning was rough, but with the right team and support it was much better. Week in, week out you’re tired, your voice gets hoarse and you still have to push through on Sunday night. I sing in hotels for a living, which made it a lot harder, because my voice gets no rest. Everyday I’m singing straight up until Sunday; it wasn’t pretty at all. God that brought me through because some days I mean there’s just no voice,” Fennell told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

On Sunday night, 29-year-old Fennell emerged victor in the 20th staging of the Digicel Rising Stars competition, beating Renecia Bernard, who finished in second place.

Fennell shared that he has always wanted to enter the competition, but the timing was never perfect.

“[S]omething always came up and I just never did. But this time was different. I was speaking with a friend on the phone and, while on the phone, I remember telling the person that I wanted something more to do; I needed another job or something, and the person said to me, ‘Akeen you don’t need to be working for nobody with that voice.’ And immediately it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I remembered I had missed the auditions in Ocho Rios for Rising Stars, so I hung up the phone and went straight to Digicel’s
Instagram page and I saw that there was going be an audition in Kingston. I realised it was the last one, so I knew this had to be God, because I always missed the auditions. That’s when I made up my mind that I was going to do it and I did. I didn’t tell a soul that I was going to audition. It was after I got through that’s when I broke the news,” Fennell explained.

Still this was not his first time at the rodeo.

He first auditioned for the competition in 2010 with school friends.

“Yeah, the judges asked me to do a solo, but I was mad nervous, so they told me to go work on it and come back, and I did just that.”

Asked how he plans to utilise the $1.5 million that he won Fennell said it will go towards to raising his two daughters as well as to kick-start his professional music career.

“Digicel Rising Stars… helped me to know my worth by not selling myself short. Getting vocal coaching from the great Michael Harris was truly an experience, and [the] lessons that I’ll continue to use throughout my career as a singer,” shared the man from Bagnold Spring in St Mary.

Digicel Rising Stars debuted in 2004 with Cavan Lewis, a singer from Portland emerging as the winner. Other winners through the years include Christopher Martin (2005), One Third (2006), Romain Virgo (2007), Dalton Harris (2010), Cameal Davis (2008), Shuga (2009), Mozein Sutherland (2022), and Remone Watson (2023).