Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Left: One Third gets emotional to James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer   Right: Rising Stars elimination and concert, Friday. - photo by Nathanile Stewart

Hard work and determination saw them through to the top.

Miguel Walters, Alpheus O. Johnson and Adrian Campbell, collectively known as One Third said they were driven to excel in this year's Digicel Rising Stars competition not only for want of achievement and recognition, but also because, persons were pessimistic about the chances of any group coming out on top.

"It's like a personal sense of achievement, because prior to the competition, persons were saying that a group cannot win, so this achievement actually mek me proud a me self and the group," Al said.

Preparation

One Third said they had from an early stage, recognised that in order to succeed in the music industry one had to be dynamic and this undoubtedly reflected in all of their performances.

"A lot of planning and work goes into every week, how we a go move to dah song deh, gesticulate, di whole thing is a package and we watched last year (Rising Stars competition) and analyzed and saw where we could improve while adding our own thing," Miguel said.

As a matter of fact, Adrian says, "It's like any business, we have to prepare, put our ideas together and present proper choreography, style and fashion."

Well, the group did just that and it was obvious from the start, that they were a cut above the rest of the competition as Miguel says, it's almost like one big snow ball effect from the auditions until now where it has taken us and mi proud a everybody weh help build the dream and vision and helping us to reach this stage."

One such person that One Third thanks for believing in their dream and vision, is their manager, Ray Alexander.

Alpheus said, "When you have a good manager like Ray Alexander who have vision and experience, everything just comes together."

One Third will now take up a one-year management contract with Shocking Vibes Limited, which is part of their winning prize, as they seek to take the next step up the ladder in their musical journey.