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She says she screamed in disbelief when
she first heard the news, and she is “happy and proud” for the accomplishment.
“I want to thank CARICOM for the honour. I
want to thank my husband (Roland Delsol Jr.) from the bottom of my heart for
believing I could do it and for producing the song; Earlson Mathew for his
arrangement; Michael Ferrol for his drumming skills and the St. Alphonsus Choir
for their choral input.”
According to the competition rules, the
song should reflect a strong Caribbean cultural identity, have versatility and
lend itself to be played by various instruments, have a strong Caribbean
cultural flavour and rhythm and inspire a sense of regional pride and unity.
Irwin Laroque,
General Secretary of CARICOM (a Dominican
himself) shares that the regional panel of judges considered her composition
“an excellent reflection of the culture, identity and aspiration of the
Caribbean Community engendering regional unity and pride and a fitting tribute
to the 40th anniversary of CARICOM.”
The win is rather timely as next year will
mark 20 years since Henderson
burst on the music scene with her winning composition “My Pride”- a song she penned for the 1995
DOMFESTA (Dominica Festival of Arts) song competition. Much like that song, “Celebrating CARICOM”
is a rallying cry for unity.
Henderson
states that while keeping the rules of the competition in mind, her main goal
was to create a song that would cause a groundswell and impact Caribbean people
in a genuine way.
“In addition to its use at official
functions, it’s my hope that “Celebrating CARICOM” will cause people from
member islands to come together and build on our strengths. Regular rotation on local radio and a
corresponding video on TV would go even further to encourage persons from all
over the region to see that we really are more similar than we are different,”
she says.
Henderson
hails from Grand Bay, a community often times referred to as the cultural
capital of Dominica and sings in English, French and French Creole. No stranger to the Regional stage, she has
performed at the CBU Song competition in Barbados, Trinidad’s Jazz Artists on the
Green, St. Lucia Jazz Festival, Carifesta in St. Kitts and Trinidad, St. Bart’s
Music Festival, Spice Jazz in Grenada, the World Creole Music Festival in
Dominica and numerous concert events in the French islands of Martinique and
Guadeloupe. The seasoned flutist has six
albums to her credit including her most recent Home (Chez Moi).
She also successfully writes for competitors across a range of genres
from pop to cadencelypso to calypso.
The powerful vocalist has been honoured by
the government of Dominica for her contribution to culture and the development
of the French Language; and as of 2004 appointed Goodwill ambassador to the
Eastern Caribbean island.
Dominica’s Minister of Culture Hon.Justina Charles and
parliamentary representative for the Grand Bay community shared the
government’s pride at her most recent achievement.
“I want to as Minister of Culture extend
congratulations to Michele for emerging winner of the CARICOM song competition
and as parliamentary representative of her community I must say that I am
extremely elated about her win. Michele
has been doing wonderfully well nationally, regionally, internationally. I think that her mother, her sisters and her
family must be very proud of her and we in the Grand Bay constituency and
Dominica by extension are very proud that such a prestigious honour has been
earned by one of our own. Her example
confirms to us her potential. We wish her all the best in her future creative
pursuits.”
The results were first announced to the
CARICOM Heads of Government at the twenty-fifth Inter-Session Meeting held in
March 2014 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Henderson’s first
official performance of “Celebrating CARICOM, the official CARICOM song will be
at the opening ceremony for the thirty-fifth Regional Meeting of the Conference
of Heads of Government to be held Tuesday 1st July, 2014. There she will also be presented with her
winning cheque of US$10,000.00.
CARICOM was established on 4 July 1973 by
the Treaty of Chaguaramas on the principle of regional integration for national
and regional development. The grouping
comprises 15 full member states (Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad
and Tobago) and 5 associates (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman
Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands). The Secretariat is headquartered in
Georgetown Guyana.
MICHELE HENDERSON ONLINE:
PRESS CONTACT
AGSelectPR
Ayeola L. George
767-316-7719
PHOTO CREDIT:365MMP
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