Students from Saint Lucia and the Commonwealth of Dominica have captured the top spots in the 2024 Eastern Caribbean Central Bank/Regional Security System-Asset Recovery Unit (ECCB/RSS-ARU) Creative Youth Competition.
The competition focused on songwriting and required students to pen an original musical composition and to submit a video of themselves performing their songs.
In the 13-16 age category, Sienna Andrew of the Convent High School in the Commonwealth of Dominica captured the first place. She impressed the judges with her song, which focused on the topic: Mental Health in Teens and Young Adults. Beata Vidal, also of the Convent High School, placed second and Faith Gibson of the Antigua Girls’ High School in Antigua and Barbuda took the third place. All of the students demonstrated their songwriting and performance talent with their respective songs on the same topic.
Head Judge of the 13-16 category, Herman Francis of Montserrat said, “If the lyrics of these songs are an insight into the mindset of our youth, then this augurs well for the future of the OECS. The use of the different genres including reggae, rap, gospel and soca, provided great variety.”
In the 17 – 19 age category, the judges selected a piece by Kamron Paul of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Saint Lucia as the winning entry. Dawson Billingy and Joshua Browne of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Community College were adjudged second and third respectively.
According to the judges, they were utterly impressed with Kamron’s lyrics and captivating vocals in his piece about mental health in teens and young adults.
“This song passionately spells out the pain and discomfort that young boys and girls experience when a father leaves the home, leaving children behind to grieve and suffer the loss of a father-figure in the house”, said James Harrigan of Anguilla, the head judge of the 17-19 age category.
The ECCB/RSS-ARU Creative Youth Competition forms part of the ECCB’s community outreach programme. The initiative aims to promote critical and innovative thinking and raise the awareness on issues of economic and social development amongst secondary school and community college students in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
The first-place winners in each of the categories will be awarded a $3,000 cash prize and a grant of $2,000 will be awarded to their respective schools. The students who placed second will each receive $2,500 and their schools will be presented with a grant of $1,500. The third-place winners will each receive $1,500 and their schools will be awarded a grant of $1,000.
The videos of the winning renditions can be viewed on the ECCB’s social media platforms at, ECCB Connects.