Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
THE CROWD that turned out to Independence Park, Black River, St Elizabeth, for the fifth set of auditions for Rising Stars 2005 seemed bent on disproving, or at least defying, the belief that Jamaica has an unending pool of natural talent. It seemed that far too many in this batch had come from the shallow end of the pool.
Only 230 persons turned out to Independence Park, which is one of the lowest that turned up to audition in the open call of the 2005 edition of the talent competition. Since the start of the auditions in Portland in April, the numbers have been steadily rising with the 515 who turned up at Brooks Park in Mandeville the previous week, being the largest number. The low turnout allowed Saturday's auditions to trickle toward an early end before 3:00 p.m.
The auditioning crowd comprised the usual group of young, old and a few who were too old. Among them were some persons who were steadily becoming regular figures at the auditions, some having been following the competition since Montego Bay three weeks ago. From the group which turned up on Saturday, the preliminary judges, Roy Rayon and David Wedderburn, managed to wean away 62 contestants to vie for the top ten on Sunday at Jack Sprat in Treasure Beach.
With the likes of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff , Peter Tosh and Louise Bennett to our credit, Jamaicans have been constantly told that we are a uniquely talented country. Often our talent for dramatics may defy logic but it usually bears out the idea of talent.
Alas there was a dearth of even logic defying dramatics on this leg. While a few shone through, some dimly, others brightly, the numbers of talent-challenged seemed to far out weigh the talented in this arena.
"Di man cut di song too quick," complained one man to his fellow rejected companion. Both seemed quite oblivious to having doused the judges with a deadly combination of tone deaf and bad, repetitive lyrics.
His comments seemed to reflect what many other contestants were feeling, however. Often, when the song is far too repetitive, sometimes with a single line being repeated up to five times, the judges cut off the contestants rather quickly. The same is often true with a contestant who is too far off from the right key, some of them being clearly unaware of its vicinity.
A look of shock and outrage often comes over the faces of these contestants, having realised that they are unable to make it to what they may have hoped to be the high point of their tune. Of course, the judges have also been equally able to spot the talented and often stop them short as well.
The talent drought was also confirmed by the comments of the main judges on day two, especially by Anthony Miller, the most brutally honest of the three. With one contestant he said, "I'm kina giving you a bligh because I've heard some pretty ordinary stuff."
Indeed, the two days of auditions in St. Elizabeth had been generally a very ordinary affair.
