Perform A Yaad winners to be announced Tuesday

Perform A Yaad, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) performing arts-based social media competition, which was hosted in an effort to keep the participants active and engaged during the stay-at-home orders of the COVID-19 pandemic, has accomplished its goal.

The competition, which saw participating groups submitting a video recording of their best at-home performance, in keeping with the ‘Perform a Yaad’ theme, ran on the JCDC’s Facebook and Instagram pages for two weeks, and the posts have already amassed tens of thousands of likes and views on both social media platforms.

With previous participants of the JCDC’s National Festival of the Performing Arts as its target group, the competition covered all five performing arts subject areas – Drama, Music, Speech and Traditional Folk Forms. “In just two short weeks, this competition has pulled tens of thousands of viewers to the inspiring, junior talent on display on our social media pages,” said Director of Marketing and Public Relations at the JCDC, Andrew Clunis.

The finalists in Music are Alphansus Davis High, Golden Finger Band and Blazing Genesis, while the Dance finalists include the Church of God Deliverance Centre, Old Harbour High, Belmont Park Primary, Painite Theatrical Academy, Salt Marsh Primary and Jessie Ripoll Primary.

Traditional Folk Forms is represented by Eagles Wing Elementary, while the Drama finalists are South Borough Primary and Mountainside Speech Club. The Speech finalists are St Richards Primary, Mount Moriah Primary and Duhaney Park Primary.

Online voting closed at midnight last Friday, and the winners of the various performing arts subject areas will be announced on Tuesday, July 14, on the JCDC’s Instagram and Facebook pages. The winners will be selected through a combination of the most likes and views on the videos posted on both Facebook and Instagram.

On offer is $500,000 in cash and prizes.