April  4, 2009 Kingston Jamaica:-The 7th season of Digicel Rising Stars kicks off on April 10 with auditions to be held in 5 locations across the country.  The auditions will run for three weekends ending on April 24.  The Digicel Rising Stars team will be hitting the same towns they did last year.

The first stop this year for the Digicel Rising Stars’ judges will be in May Pen with auditions at the Leiba’s Gas Station on Saturday April 10. The judges are in Portmore the following day at the Portmore Heart Academy. One week later the Digicel Rising Stars team will be searching for talent on the north coast with auditions at The Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay on Saturday April 17. On Sunday April 18 auditions are at the Hibiscus Lodge in Ocho Rios. The Rising Stars team then hops over to Kingston for the final audition on April 24 at the Girl Guides’ Headquarters.

It’s important to know that this year the Digicel Rising Stars auditions will only span three weekends instead of the usual five as there will now be back to back auditions on the first two weekends. The show’s producers point out that auditions will begin at 8AM and end at 3PM at all locations. They say members of the team will be ready to start registering contestants from as early as 6:30AM.

Digicel Rising Stars’ producer Sharon Schroeter says this year the auditions are being done back to back to make things easier for the team and to get through the audition phase of the competition faster: “Last year we tried out the one day format and it worked and this year we decided to do it again.”

The Rising Stars producer said the back to back auditions will not put any added pressure on the team. Schroeter also said it was a bit difficult this year to only choose five locations: “It was so hard for us this year to only choose five, we really wanted to go to six locations because everywhere that we’ve gone to in the past has delivered so much talent.”

Meanwhile Rising Stars’ judge, Clyde McKenzie, says he is expecting big things this season. While not picking any special venue Mr. McKenzie says he's expecting the audition in Kingston to be big: "The fact is that because Kingston is usually the last what you find is that a lot of people usually come to Kingston, which gives it a special kind of composition in terms of contestants.”

The Rising Stars’ judge says for him it’s not just a matter of who has the best voice but those who handle Jamaican music well.  So what's Clyde McKenzie's advice to contestants this season: "Try to stay on key, that's very important, try to learn your songs properly and just be confident.”

The show’s producers say they are still working out the attrition ratio but at the end of the five auditions the public will have thirty contestants to choose from as the judges will select five contestants from each location except Kingston which will see 10 contestants being put forward for the public’s vote.

Audition shows will begin airing on TVJ on Sunday June 13 with contestants from May Pen and Portmore. Contestants from Montego Bay and Ocho Rios will make up the second show to be aired on Sunday June 20, while Kingston’s audition show will be aired on Sunday June 27. All shows will be aired at 8PM.

So if you want to showcase your talent to all of Jamaica, come to any of the five auditions Island wide.   The auditions begin on Saturday April 10 at Leiba’s Gas Station in May Pen then move to the Portmore Heart Academy on Sunday April 11.  Western Jamaica will get their chance on Saturday April 17 at The Wexford, Montego Bay and the 4th stop for the Digicel Rising Stars Auditions will be on Sunday April 18 at the Hibiscus Lodge in Ocho Rios. The 5th and final audition will be held in Kingston at the Girl Guides’ Headquarters on Saturday April 24.  All auditions begin at 8AM and end at 3PM