Hamilton resident Tania Hernandez and Toronto\u2019s Lavie Lujah are two Canadians taking part in the Jamaican International Independence Foreign Song competition, which is geared toward Jamaicans living outside Jamaica.<\/p>\n
The competition debuted\u00a0in 2021, with Toronto’s Lavie Lujah emerging as the winner. Lujah is back in the competition this year and was named one of the finalists alongside Hernandez.<\/p>\n
Hernandez uses the stage name Miss Tania Lou in honour of\u00a0\u00a0Louise Bennett-Coverley<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the folklorist and performer who helped popularize the Jamaican dialect worldwide. Bennett-Coverley\u00a0was affectionately known as Miss Lou to her fans.<\/p>\n According to Hernandez, she got the inspiration for the song she’s entered in\u00a0the competition,\u00a0\u2018<\/strong>Give me the Black Green and Gold<\/strong><\/a>\u2019,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>while cooking in her kitchen last year.<\/p>\n “It just made me feel so happy because it was reminiscent of my childhood when every year [the independence] festival came around and you have these singers singing the mento, calypso, reggae songs,” she told CBC Hamilton.<\/p>\n “I put my song forward and was so happy to hear that out of 19 entrants this year, they picked 12. So, I’m in the top 12 semi finals, and from now until June 30th, they are\u00a0allowing the public to vote<\/a>\u00a0for their favourite song.<\/p>\n “Five per cent of the votes from the fans will go toward the decision of who will be in the top seven, and those top seven semi finalists will go to Atlanta on July 30 to perform to vie for the top three positions,” she added.<\/p>\n Hernandez says she wrote her song to show “gratitude for those who paved the way for us.\u00a0 “Black, Green and Gold are the colours of [the Jamaican] flag. It encapsulates all those trailblazers, all those people who paved the way to give us a strong foundation. So, I wanted to carry the baton to keep the strong foundation of our country going,” she said. “We want a\u00a0boonoonoonoos<\/em>\u00a0country \u2014 that is a term for nice. We don’t want a\u00a0booguyaga<\/em>\u00a0[not worth anything,\u00a0low class] country, we want to continue being\u00a0<\/strong>boonoonoonoos<\/em>.”<\/p>\n ‘They love my music’ Hernandez says the feedback to the song has been good.\u00a0 “I am so glad that people are loving my song.\u00a0They love my music,” she\u00a0said.\u00a0“Somebody wrote to me and told me that my song addresses every facet of our culture with integrity, humour and musicality. And she also made a comment that Miss Lou \u2026 if she were alive, she would be proud of me.<\/p>\n “I am happy because the idea is to continue being the best ambassador of my country \u2026 so that Jamaica would be a better place and Canada would be a better place because it’s a multicultural country,” she said.<\/p>\n Hernandez says while she was elated to receive the comment about Miss Lou, she was not totally surprised. That’s because for several years now people have been calling her Miss Lou and have commented that she resembles and expresses herself like the Jamaican icon.\u00a0 “I’m not trying to mimic her.\u00a0I’m just a tribute performer for her and also a general folklorist and singer,” she said.<\/p>\n Hernandez, 56, has worked as a special educator for more than 20 years teaching kids with autism, dyslexia and reading difficulties. She is a certified Canadian Orton-Gillingham educator and reading practitioner.<\/p>\n Lavie Lujah, last year’s winner, works\u00a0as a behavioural specialist at\u00a0the Toronto District School Board. He said\u00a0he started publishing music after\u00a0now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin\u00a0murdered George Floyd.\u00a0 Despite always being interested in music, “I had to respond,” Lujah said, publishing a song called\u00a0\u2018I Can’t Breathe\u2019<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n He said he thinks the reason his song,\u00a0\u2018<\/strong>Certified Yardie\u2019<\/em><\/strong>,<\/a>\u00a0was chosen as the winner in last year’s competition is\u00a0because it focuses on the character of Jamaican people instead of focusing on the beaches and warm weather.\u00a0 The song he’s submitting this year,\u00a0\u2018<\/em><\/strong>Jamaica\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a>Rise and Shine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2019<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0celebrates the country’s 60th year as an independent nation. ‘It’s keeping the Jamaican flag flying high’<\/p>\n Garfield ‘Gary G’ McCook says\u00a0he organized the competition because there was a need for a platform in the diaspora for independence-type festivities.\u00a0 He says\u00a0the inaugural competition drew 20 entrants from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.<\/p>\n “There are so\u00a0many artistes in the diaspora who wanted a platform, and they didn’t have it, but now they have a platform,” McCook told CBC\u00a0via telephone from Atlanta.\u00a0 “We’re trying to just keep our\u00a0reggae and other music alive here by giving these artists the voice to express what we are accustomed to back home when we enjoyed those great festival songs. It’s keeping the Jamaican flag flying high.”<\/p>\n McCook says he hopes the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission will come on board, adding that the\u00a0competition provides a unique opportunity to tell those in the diaspora about the island and invite them to visit.<\/p>\n Lujah said the competition means a lot to him.\u00a0 “To be able to participate in our nation through the platform of this festival means a whole lot and as an independent artist, getting a platform\u00a0on which, your own people and other people get to hear you … this platform is going to give birth to a lot of talent,” he said.<\/p>\n “I’m hoping the festival brings more awareness to the Jamaican culture and also brings awareness to Canadians in general that there’s a competition like this that exists and that there are Canadians that aren’t just entering but winning.”<\/p>\n A panel of judges will determine the top three winners on July 30. The semi-finalists will be judged on vocal quality, production\u00a0quality, originality and relevance to the Jamaican culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hamilton resident Tania Hernandez and Toronto\u2019s Lavie Lujah are two Canadians taking part in the Jamaican International Independence Foreign Song competition, which is geared toward Jamaicans living outside Jamaica. The competition debuted\u00a0in 2021, with Toronto’s Lavie Lujah emerging as the winner. Lujah is back in the competition this year and was named one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian-news","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3692","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3728,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3692\/revisions\/3728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}