Festval Song winner dBURNZ ‘loves Jamaica’

When dBURNZ stood up on stage on Saturday night and sang “I don’t know bout you, but I love Jamaica”, he was passionate and intentional about celebrating Jamaica on the island’s biggest cultural stage, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC)Festival Song Competition finals. And when he heard his name announced as winner, with the song I Love Jamaica, he felt like all his dreams had come true all at once.

“I felt good,” dBURNZ told The Gleaner, stretching the “good” as far as it could go.

“After I heard Abba Jones’s name call for third place and then Ovando [Levy] for second, in the back of my head, I said ‘The winner could be me’. I knew I had gone the extra mile to mek sure seh mi seal it off … but the other songs were good, too,” he said.

This year, the Festival Song Competition is celebrating its 60th anniversary and the quality of the entries was outstanding. Both Jones, with the humorous and non-traditional Teet A Fi Me, and Levy, with the educational and patriotic Jamaica School (Bingi Ling) were among the favourites, and going into the finals it was anybody’s game.

Still on a high from Saturday night’s win, dBURNZ told The Gleaner on Monday that he felt accomplished knowing that he made the decision to enter the competition, carried it through, and dedicated himself totally to it.

“Years before, I wanted to enter, but it didn’t happen. I came back to Jamaica in February after spending six months overseas performing at the Bob Marley Hope Road residency in Las Vegas, and I needed something to do. It was around the time when they were calling for entries in the Festival Song Competition. I haven’t worked on a big project in a while, and I wanted to challenge myself, so decided that I would enter,” he shared.

Also, it was while in Las Vegas that Melbourne ‘dBURNZ’ Douglas came to fully appreciate just how much he loved Jamaica. Night after night, he celebrated Jamaica before international audiences, yet somewhere between the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip and the appreciative shouts of packed theatres, he discovered a longing for home – the people, the food, the sunshine, and that energy that only Jamaicans seem to carry wherever they go.

“We found Jamaican restaurants in Las Vegas … but the jerk chicken tasted different, the curry goat tasted different. Even the sun felt different. And we start to miss Jamaica … and we came up with the concept that ‘I don’t know bout you, but I love Jamaica’,” dBURNZ explained.

THE SONG

In order to enter the JCDC Festival Song Competition, he needed a song, and that’s when he and his friends Mark Anthony Reid and Dale Brown linked up, and they all wrote I Love Jamaica, each of them putting in what they loved best about the island.

“We decided that we wanted to give Jamaicans a proper song that dem can rally ‘round. We deliberately wrote the song memorable … quick intro and straight into the chorus with a line that all Jamaicans and non-Jamaicans can sing – I don’t know bout you, but I love Jamaica. Nice hook and nice melody,” the 2026 Festival Song Competition winner said.

A charismatic performer with an infectious stage presence, dBURNZ, who has been singing with choirs since his days at Glenmuir High School and later at the University of the West Indies, has experienced many and varied stages and proudly carries Jamaica wherever he goes. He has performed at Carifesta festivals in Suriname and Haiti, Jamaica 50 celebrations in the United Kingdom, and he has been involved in theatre and television productions. Yet despite those accomplishments, he believes the JCDC Festival Song Competition remains one of the country’s most valuable platforms for artistes.

For him, the competition is about much more than winning. It provides exposure, professional development, and an opportunity to celebrate Jamaica through original music. He also believes that many young creatives overlook the broader opportunities the JCDC provides beyond the competition itself.

“ The competition is forcing me to be organised. You learn professionalism, performance, contracts, and the business side of music. That’s invaluable,” he said. “There is a lot that the competition does for artiste development. When you make it to the top 10, the first meeting you have is a contract meeting. And there is a lawyer there telling you terms and explaining them. Then there is the exposure from the road shows, and that is something you cannot pay for. It is a total package.”

His mission is to ensure that the eyes that are on him now remain and keep building. He has seen growth in his social media numbers throughout the competition and a spike following Saturday night’s win.

“I will be putting out new music and networking and finding a way to leverage the push I received from JCDC. Big respect to the Minister of Culture and the JCDC for giving us this platform for showcasing our talents and our patriotism,” dBURNZ stated.

He is inviting everybody to come out in their Jamaican colours to the Grand Gala on August 6 at the National Stadium, where he will perform I Love Jamaica on the big stage.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com