Top 40 People’s Choice contestants named Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

The votes are in and the public has declared their top 40 songs for the Crop Over season.

Chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation, Carol Roberts-Reifer announced the Top 40 artistes in the Student Revolving Loan Fund and Sunshine Snacks Crop Over People’s Choice Competition in association with Banks Beer on Thursday, July 14 during a press conference at the Wildey Gymnasium.

The first round of public voting opened on Monday, July 4 and closed on Tuesday, July 12, with officials reporting up to 166,000 votes. This year, the People’s Choice replaces the Soca Monarch with the top 20 artistes voted on by the public, winning the opportunity to perform at Courtesy Garage 98.1 The One Soca Rukshun on Crop Over Sunday.

The top 40 artistes who advance to the second round, and each will receive $2 000 for advancing. Meanwhile, the top 20 artistes will receive an additional $1 000 for advancing and $4 000 compensation for their performance at the Soca Rukshun show.

Flanked by Entertainer Association of Barbados (EAB) public relations strategist Ruel Ward, EAB president Rudy Maloney and the Barbados Association of Creatives and Artistes public relations officer of Barry Knight, who signed off on the list, Roberts-Reifer reiterated that the rationale behind the People’s Choice”was to be able to allow as many artistes as possible to get a lucrative pay day as opposed to the usual competition where one artiste walked away with a car and a large amount of cash”.

The NCF CEO assured of the voting validation process, explaining that only one vote per device was allowed. Multiple votes from the same device will be removed. She explained that the voting process was simplified to ensure that “the backend was secure as possible”.

With the second round of voting to open at midnight Friday, July 15 and running until Wednesday, July 20, Roberts-Reifer encouraged artistes to “get out there and do their marketing”.

“Don’t depend on being able to make your devices do amazing things. In actual fact, just get out there push your song market yourself and get people to vote for you,” she urged.

The Top 40 artistes that have made it through to the second round include:

ALL – YANNICK HOOPER AMAZING – RAANAN ANYTIME – TARIQUE O’NEAL ANYWHERE, ANYWAY – SUGAHRHE BASHMENT – PARK DE PLUG BEN – KEERAH CARNIVAL IS – KEISHA CHRISTIAN CELEBRATE LIFE – RICHARD ANTONIO CROP OVER WE COMING – ARCHIE MILLER DIBBINESS – RHEA LAYNE & WALKES DON’T KILL MY VIBE – THELIA EXTRAORDINARY – MR. VEEJAY FAMILY AFFAIR – IMARA FREE CHRYSTAL – CUMMINS-BECKLES-HOLDER FREEDOM LAST – DASILVA AND CHRISSY D HAND PON HEAD – SWAGGY HOSTAGE – RENE KING JUDGE ME – QUON LOCATION – GRATEFUL CO LOKK IT AFFF – EDWIN YEARWOOD LOW BUDGET – SIR RUEL MAUBY – BRUCELEE ALMIGHTEE MOCK – TOYAN POP KITE – FAITH CALLENDER PRISON BREAK – MISTAH DALE PROPERTY – RENIECE BONNETT PTSD – AKHNATEN RAW RECOGNIZE RAW (RRR) – LINSKEE READY – NIKITA X MIKEY MERCER RED GYAL ANTHEM – DOYENNE RUM & SOCA – Q~SO SAME ONE – SHAQUILLEGFG AND COOPA DAN STAGE – ASHAWNYA

NewsAmericasNow.com