By Andre Jebbinson, Staff Reporter

Vere Technical High School continues to dazzle everyone one with convincing costumes and dramatisations in the 'All Together Sing' competition. Here, their 'Real Ghetto Pain' could be felt throughout this performance. - Andre Jebbinson photo

There are only eight schools remaining in the All Together Sing competition and a couple schools have already made their mark.

Aaubuthnott Gallimore High, Lennon High and to an extent, Oberlin High, had the judges singing high praises.

They stopped short of declaring which school they thought would take the top prize but comments were telling enough. While the finale is more than a few weeks away, Sunday night probably belonged to Aaubuthnott Gallimore.

Their reggae medley got a vast boost from the arrangement, great back-up music and delivery came together for a sound performance. Judge Lilieth Sewell said she wanted to adopt the lead singer while Dennis Rushton said both the lead singer and the drummer were the "bomb."

The Television Jamaica studio audience and the judges now seem to have their favourites but it is Rusea's High that seems to be Jamaica's favourite. They capped the top position heading into the top 10 and have not looked back since.

Oberlin, is however, not taking it lying down. They already have the confidence since they won the competition last year. But apart from that, they seem up to the challenge, matching strides with the other top choirs. They sang Higher and Higher.

While some front-runners have emerged, there are those who continue to be plagued by pitch and arrangement problems. Prime example: Vere Technical could have had a decent performance when they sang Ghetto Pain only if they had raised the pitch a bit. Facial expressions and costumes were on target but not the singing. St James High also fell into the same trap.

Vauxhall is now becoming known as the school to choose non-traditional choral pieces. They sang Baby Cham's Ghetto Story in the first week of the competition. This week, they did another odd number, This Is Dedicated. The judges were expecting a bang at the end, but that did not materialise.

Clarendon College, on the other hand, improved on their previous performance. Their Woman A Heavy Load medley was not only great entertainment, but it was also filled with energy and well structured.

This week's show had Lawrence Wright, another judge, convinced that the choirs are more focused. Sewell also agreed that the standard is improving.