Not even the presence of a steady afternoon downpour of rain could dampen what turned out to be one of the most entertaining and keenly contested finals in the Tastee Talent Trail history.

At the end of the night, 17-year-old deejay Anthony Clarke crowned himself in glory by emerging the winner on all the judges' scoresheet . Not only did he walk away with the title of Tastee Talent Trail winner for 2012, but he is the first deejay in more than a decade to have copped the title. Clarke pocketed $1 million for his victory, which came behind sparkling performances of his two songs, namely, Love Girls and Three Hundred Catty.

During the performance of the latter, the open-air theatre in Cross Roads was 'shell down' as the crowd showed their support behind the lanky teenager from St Mary.

Ever since her audition in Montego Bay, Ozana Lindo, who turned 18 last week, separated herself from the others as a special talent. Indeed, judges Oral Tracey and Amelia 'Milk' Sewell have on occasion dubbed her the early favourite for the title.

But, as is the case in recent years, the person heading into the finals as the favourite has been known to stumble. This was the case last night as Ozana needed to be on her 'A' game, given what Clarke had brought in his performance. This was not to be and she had to settle for the runner-up spot, which saw her taking $500,000 back to St Elizabeth.

In what may be a surprise to many, one of the "dark horses" in the field of six, singer, songwriter and guitarist Renaldo Meikle stood out with his two powerful original recordings Abused Woman and Hard To Let Go. Striking a chord with the audience this proved enough for him to earn the third- place nod from judges Queen Ifrica, Sewell and Oral Tracey, thus enabling the 29-year-old to walk away with $150,000.

All six finalists were presented with gift packages from Pepsi in the contest which was sponsored by Tastee, Pepsi, TVJ, FAME FM, Sparkles, T-Shirt Express and Kosmo Tours.

The Unique vision band provided backing, Host for the night was Pepita and Elva did emcee duties. The 2013 Tastee Talent Trail season gets under way with auditions in March next year.

Simone Chang Pong (left), director of Tastee Limited, presents a cheque for $1 million to first-place winner Anthony Clarke.