Home-grown musician Mikhail Campbell was presented with a CI $5000.00 cheque by the Minister of Culture Hon. Dwayne Seymour, along with current Cayman Music & Entertainment Association (CMEA) President Jeán – eric Smith.

The Musician, who performs as “Matrixx”, received the funds for his first place finish in the National Song Competition held during Pirates Week 2019.

Eighteen participants contested for the top prize in the competition; vying for the CI$10,000.00 in prize money.

Second place received CI$3000.00 and third place was awarded CI$2000.00.

Matrixx won the top place prize for his song “Everyone a Dancer.” Andy Blake walked away with second place honours for his original, composition entitled “Enchanted – Sweet, Sweet Cayman.” While Stuart Wilson tied for third place with childhood duo Kadence Miller Ebanks and Tayanna Samuels; also known as “Pinkie and Onezie” with the songs “Oh Cayman Islands” and “It’s Pirates Week” respectively.

“The National Song contest, created as an original keystone event of the Pirates Week Festival, had been previously discontinued for many years but I am very pleased that under my tenure as President of CMEA we were able to successfully revive and execute this staple event for the past two years; and hopefully for the foreseeable future. The revival of this event would not have been possible without the cooperation of The Pirates Week Office and the events sponsors: The Tourism Attractions Board (TAB), CMEA and the Ministry of Culture,” remarked Mr Smith.

“Thus far, the Ministry has been very supportive of CMEA and our efforts to build on the musical heritage which Cayman is renowned for. Not only did we bring the competition back for the second year but we were also able to increase the total prize money substantially to CI$10,000 to be split between the winners,” added Mr Smith.

“The Ministry of Culture is very proud to sponsor the National Song Competition. Music is intrinsically linked to our cultural identity and we applaud CMEA on resurrecting this cultural production and rewarding those who keep our culture alive through the art of music,” said Hon Dwayne Seymour, JP MLA.