Entertainment

Christopher tops votes... as top six finalists revealed in Rising Stars finals

By TANYA BATSON-SAVAGE, Freelance Writer

Rising Stars finalist Christopher Martin impressed the judges and the audience last Sunday with his performance. He earned the highest number of votes at the vote-off on Friday.

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN BLEW the boy band Q from the top position when voting ended on Friday evening and the top six finalists in the Rising Stars 2005 Competition were announced at the Knutsford Court hotel.

Martin had performed a medley of songs on Friday night which wowed both audience and judges last Sunday, which had been dedicated to contemporary Jamaica music. The screams which greeted the announcement of Martin's earning the top position, and his performance confirmed that his position was not a fluke.

Indeed, had there been a roof over the courtyard the screams would not only have raised it, it would have been smashed to bits. "Im bad man, im bad," said one enthusiastic fan.

Martin was, however, not the only favourite of the night. Daynea Deacon had got the second highest number of votes after her wonderful performance of Gyptian's Serious Times. She too performed on Friday night and the audience lustily sang along with her. "Me oulda de wid ar fi ar vice, God know," said one man at the end of her performance.

Q placed third in the votes ranking this week, the first time they had relinquished the number one spot since the final ten were selected. The group had performed TOK's Footprints.

Noddy Virtue earned the fourth highest number of votes while Prince J earned the fifth highest. Both had pulled from Luciano's repertoire last week Sunday with Virtue performing Serve Jah and Prince J delivering a superb rendition of Hills and Valleys.

Face brought up the rear having earned the sixth highest number of votes, despite, as judge Anthony Miller put it, having dropped a "bomb" on Jamrock with her performance.

So at the end of the night, the female contingent was down by two as Shari, after mangling Tanya Stephens' After You and Chanti I, who once again failed to live up to her potential with Wayne Wonder's No Letting Go, were let go.