Slashe’s ‘Best in the World’ voted best in competition

Veteran Reggae Producer Donovan Germain has created history by nabbing the top three positions in this year’s Festival Song Competition.

Germain, Penthouse Records’ head honcho, produced the winning song, Best in the World, performed and written by Slashe, as well as the second- and third-place winners Dancing Same Way, written by Shuga and Duane Stephenson and performed by Shuga; and Feel Like Home, performed and written by Exco Levi.

Remaining humble in his victory, Germain said: “It’s not me, it’s the artiste them. I don’t want to take no credit, I just produce the lyrics. God give me the gift of a good pair of ears. I tend to have an idea when a song sound good. It might not be a hit, but I know the sound, so I try and produce it to the best of my ability at all times.”

He continued: “Well a history this, top three songs. This is history. But it was three good songs, you can’t deny that. And I’ve always said we need good songs for people to be interested in Festival. Normally I am a judge, and this year, I decided that I am going to produce some songs, and that’s what I did. I never rooted for anyone, enuh. I just sat down and gave encouragement. Go up there and do your best. I couldn’t cheer for any one of them, but all three of them are winners.”

Joking that Jesus went into the production of the winning song, Germain told The Gleaner:“ Best in the World, lyrically it is a strong song. It don’t stop at Festival. Just like Exco song, we try to make songs that transcend time. So it wasn’t about come sing bout ackee and salt fish and sea and sand, and all dem tings deh. We try fi write a well-written song that we can say even five years later, we can hear it a play same way. A lot of the songs that have won for the last couple of years, you don’t hear dem again. So we try to lift up the quality of the thing. We felt like that was really the main objective of the whole thing.”

A grateful Slashe described the feeling as “surreal” and thanked the voters and all who supported him. “I am thankful to my record label, I’m thankful to my producer, I’m thankful to the Almighty,” said Slashe.

Praising the accomplishment, Culture Minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange said: “So I would congratulate Penthouse and Donovan Germain. I mean, the winner takes all and they took everything.”

She continued: “Maybe what this indicates is the professionalism because the songs were well-produced although for all the entries, we assisted by identifying producers who could have improved on the productions that came in. In fact, those were the only three that we didn’t have to hire producers to improve do some remixes. So it underscores the fact that this competition expects professionalism, well-produced songs, well-written lyrics and good performances.

While always a proponent of the cultural contest, Germain said his artistes were initially hesitant to enter the contest.

“For Shuga and even Exco,” he explained, “both of them have albums coming up shortly, and I told them, basically, the promotional aspect of this is enormous, so try and capitalise on it. It’s not a matter of winning the competition, but the profile it gives you now in the media. It prepares you for the album. As you see, the work paid off, and it’s good for them as young artiste to really come and go on this platform and accomplish this. This is good for them résumé.”

While basking in the victory, Germain says he hopes this year’s staging acts as encouragement for other artistes of all calibre to take part in the competition.

“We hope we can get other front-line artistes to be a part of it. Because it’s not about winning all the time. It’s a matter of being a part of our culture, of independence. Remember, Bob Marley did festival songs, and who bigger than Bob Marley?”

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com