At the end of a keenly contested Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Competition finals last Saturday night, it was a beaming, body-positive Miss St Elizabeth Omolora Wilson, dressed in a sparkling red gown, who elegantly walked away with the title. “To be honest ..
. it’s fireworks, it’s happiness, it’s being elated. It’s genuinely just a great feeling to be out here representing Jamaica and to be selected by Jamaicans to be the new Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2024,” was Wilson’s response to The Gleaner, when asked how she was feeling in the moment.
Family, friends and patriotic Jamaicans filled inside the National Indoor Sports Centre to cheer on the 13 parish queens at the well-executed event presented by the Jamaica Cultural Development Corporation (JCDC). The queens brought their A-game to the competition and impressed with their talent, poise and intelligence. They took inspiration from the passage of Hurricane Beryl, and her name popped up in a few of the talent pieces.
Miss St Thomas, who was the first queen to present, set the tone by proclaiming that we Haffi Build it Back . Miss St James’ Education A Sweet Mi was quite delightful, and so, too, was Jamaica A Di Best Ting Bout Ya from Ms Kingston and St Andrew. Humour came in the form of Ah Don’t Like People Business, courtesy of Miss St Mary, and Woman Can Cry Cree from Miss Hanover, who had the audience repeating her chorus, to which she urged them, “Louder!” Wilson, whose Cash Pot Reasoning earned her the sectional prize for Best Performance, was also adjudged Most Culturally Aware and Most Active in the Community.
Amusingly, at the risk of being labelled ‘anti-monarchist’, she noted in her ‘reasonings’ that “di only queen we want a di Double Tap one”, a not-so-subtle reference to controversial social media influencer-cum-dancehall deejay, Queenie Lady Gangsta. Kudos to Deon Silvera and Karen Harriott, the talent coaches for the ladies. ADMIRATION Wilson, a former guild president of The University of the West Indies, Mona, had nothing but admiration for her fellow contestants and told The Gleaner that, despite being a favourite, she didn’t feel that the crown was hers in the weeks leading up to the finals.
“The 13 ladies who were selected to represent their parishes this year were the crème de la crème...
they were top-tier. Actually, the competition this year was very tight, and there was no underestimating any of the girls because they were phenomenal all throughout the time frame. So I didn’t feel as if I were going to win all along, I felt as if I had stiff competition , but I knew that if I gave my heart towards this I could actually come out as the queen,” Wilson shared.
Miss Manchester Shonnoya Houston placed second, while Miss Kingston and St Andrew Daindra Harrison, who also received the sectional award for Most Popular on Social Media, was third. Miss Portland Tamesha Wilson, a singer who was striking in a canary-yellow gown, copped the awards for Best in Gown and Most Poised. Miss Hanover Sornia Samuels was judged Most Congenial.
A community project is one of the essentials of this JCDC competition and Wilson, an advocate for body positivity and the rights of women and children, is ready for the challenge. “My community project is Signed Seal Jamaica. I want to partner with sign [language] clubs to initiate clubs across schools in my community.
Plus, I want to engage them in that form of language, and also want to bring a cultural aspect to it, so that they can express our culture through sign language. So, I want my children to say their names and even say the basic words in sign language. And then, of course, to take it a next step further and be able to recite a Miss Lou poem in sign language or to sing a folk song using their hands,” a passionate Wilson explained.
She had a word for young girls who are interested in entering the Festival Queen Competition. “Dreams are the possibilities to become visions, and visions are the possibilities to become realities; and so dream big and have a vision for greatness, and reality will follow soon after. So that little girl out there who is watching this: Just be yourself, be confident in who you are, and have no problem taking up space,” the newly crowned Festival Queen declared.
Emcee for the evening was Dahlia Harris. yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.
com.
