The fifth Jamaica International Independence Foreign Song Competition (JIIFSC) takes place on July 26 in Snellville, Georgia with seven artists competing for the top prize of US$8,000 and a trophy.<\/p>\n
Ernel Earlington and his harmony group Doxology will defend their crown. Their entry is \u2018If yuh Love Jamaica sey Yes\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, a Ska song. Last year, they won with \u2018Jamaica Nice\u2019<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Their rivals this year are Chawlih Crux out of Washington DC with \u2018Jamaica Now\u2019,<\/em><\/strong> Dion Knibb from Boston \u2018My Sweet Jamaica\u2019,<\/em><\/strong> Lisa Blackford representing Virginia with \u2018My Jamaica Home Sweet Home\u2019, <\/em><\/strong>IJAHKNOWAH out of Georgia with \u2018Yardie\u2019,<\/em><\/strong> Lee \u201cPriest\u201d Johnson, also based in Georgia \u2018Jamaica ina mi Blood\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and Tania Lou from Canada with \u2018Jamaica Soul\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The runner-up will receive $4,000 and a trophy, with third place collecting $1,000.<\/p>\n Dr. Garfield McCook, a Jamaican businessman who lives in Atlanta, started the event in 2021. Inspired by the long-running Festival Song Contest in Jamaica, it is open to Jamaicans in the Diaspora.<\/p>\n Lavie Lujah, a longtime Toronto resident, won the inaugural contest with \u2018Certified Yardie\u2019<\/em><\/strong>. In 2022, the winner was \u2018IRIE\u2019<\/em><\/strong> by GoddySon out of New York, with Ohio-based Leon \u201cLeTonick\u201d Denton winning in 2023 with \u2018Jamaican in Mi\u2019<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fifth Jamaica International Independence Foreign Song Competition (JIIFSC) takes place on July 26 in Snellville, Georgia with seven artists competing for the top prize of US$8,000 and a trophy. Ernel Earlington and his harmony group Doxology will defend their crown. Their entry is \u2018If yuh Love Jamaica sey Yes\u2019, a Ska song. Last year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11062,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11061\/revisions\/11062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}