With controversy surrounding what should be the official Jamaica 50 song, the Ministry of Youth and Culture has announced that the public will now have a say in which songs will be recognised as part of the Jamaica 50 celebrations.

At the forefront of the discussion were the Shaggy-produced On A Mission that was launched last week, and the Michael Bennett-produced Find The Flag which was released last year.

But in a release sent to THE WEEKEND STAR, the Ministry of Youth and Culture yesterday noted that several songs have been submitted to the Jamaica 50 Secretariat, and the Secretariat has been discussing the best way for the public to have a say in which songs they think are suitable to be recognised as part of the Jamaica 50 celebrations.

The release continued, "It is our view that one positive that the present discussions about a song for Jamaica 50 has accomplished, is that the Jamaica 50 Secretariat will now fast-track its determination on a public participation process involving social and other media, that will possibly lead to a Jamaica 50 endorsed musical compilation. The Jamaica 50 Secretariat's social media team is now working on a possible design of such a campaign, and discussions have been initiated with a major telecoms provider on a texting platform to enable such a public participation initiative."

According to the release, On A Mission is the marketing campaign song for the Jamaica 50 Secretariat, and is not the official Jamaica 50 celebrations song.

Therefore, "it is the view of the Jamaica 50 Secretariat that in this 50th anniversary year, all talented Jamaican artistes should be able to feel that their creative work has an equal opportunity to be a part of the national celebrations. As such, the rescoped and restructured Jamaica 50 project approved by the Government does not include any one song as the official Jamaica 50 celebrations song," the release said.

Earlier this week, a decision was also made to use the Michael Bennett-produced Find The Flag in the upcoming campaign to have workplaces promote the wearing of gold or yellow shirts on Fridays as part of the Jamaica 50 celebrations. The song will also be featured as part of the launch of the 'One Million Pins Initiative' set to coincide with the National Athletics Trials.