LUST has a reputation for being the kind of talented, fun group, that is able to effortlessly pull in its audience and take them on a fantastic journey on any day of the week. This evening, they will be harnessing those skills, and much more, like their great vocals and smooth harmonies, when they throw down their Festival song for a heavily virtual audience.

The quartet, which includes Lukie D, Trilla U, Singing Melody, and Tony Curtis – the letters of whose names form the acronym LUST – has entered this year’s Jamaica Festival Song contest with a song titled Wave Di Flag. And as Singing Melody points out, this is exactly what these reggae ambassadors have been doing for Jamaica throughout the years.

Carrying the Flag for Decades

“We have been carrying the flag of Jamaica for close to three decades, and to get involved in the actual Festival Song Competition this year feels like something we have been doing all along. The experience has been a cool one, and we have raised the bar, so that means when a young talent enters the festival after this, they know that they have to come really good. Our involvement this year has helped to make the contest appealing again, and hopefully, things will only improve going forward,” Singing Melody said.

He had words of praise for previous winners such as Toots, Stanley Beckford, Roy Rayon, Eric Donaldson, and The Astronauts – “those great men who have been carrying the flag with festival” – but lamented that the competition has been really dying. “Very few of the next generation have been doing anything when they win, and it can be attributed in part to lack of opportunity. But we can carry that song with us wherever we go and sing it like a national anthem. So that in itself is a plus,” he added.

The group has been taking its participation in the competition seriously and has been enjoying promoting Wave Di Flag on various social-media platforms. Voting has already started for the public to choose their favourite song, and fans of LUST are talking the talk and hailing the group for a job well done. They have until next week Sunday to continue voting for the group. And although Singing Melody shared that being in the competition is really not about winning a title, LUST is leaving nothing to chance. Getting it right on stage and having the ideal image remain two key ingredients to their on-point delivery.

“We are rehearsing and putting our outfits together for the performance show on Sunday evening,” Singing Melody said. “LUST is ready.”

The winning song this year will be decided exclusively by public voting via the Digicel platform. Persons in the diaspora, for the first time, will also be able to choose the winners.

It was in 1966 that the Festival Song Competition got under way in Jamaica, and the aim was to give Jamaicans a feel-good vibe at Independence time. The winning song is meant to be one that will be on the lips of every man, woman, and child and a call to action at home and in the diaspora. It is also the soundtrack of the Jamaica Festival and Independence celebrations.

Among the big winners in the past have been Toots and the Maytals, Eric Donaldson, Hopeton Lewis, Roy Rayon, Tinga Stewart, and Nazzleman. It has had entries from Bob Marley, Rita Marley, Jacob Miller, Inner Circle, and Desi Young. The 2019 winner is St Ann-based singer Raldene ‘Loaded Eagle’ Dyer with the song Big Up Jamaica.