Lexia Taylor sings during the Digicel Rising Stars auditions held at the Portmore HEART Academy on Saturday, April 18, 2009. - Anthony Minott photos

The rain did not deter the more than 500 persons who came out to test their vocal abilities at the first Digicel Rising Stars auditions, for 2009, held at the Portmore HEART Academy in St Catherine on Saturday.

For the first time, the preliminary judging and the final judging were done on the same day.

"It's the first time we are doing the preliminary and final judging the same day and it worked out fine," Sharon Schroeter, producer of Rising Stars, said.

Schroeter was also encouraged by the performances saying, "The audition was good and the performances were great. It is a good start to the season. I can tell you, we have an incredible top 10," a smiling Schroeter said.

However, no groups made it to the top 10 at the Portmore auditions, and for that, Schroeter was disappointed.

ruthless

The Portmore auditions precede four other auditions, namely in Montego Bay this Saturday, followed, by May Pen, Ocho Rios and Kingston.

Host Yendi Phillipps was delightful, as usual. The former Miss Jamaica World mingled with contestants and interviewed the interesting characters, in full view of her young fans - a number of kids from the Sunshine City who were looking on.

The judges were kept busy assessing the talent pool, with just a handful of hopefuls getting the nod of approval.

Anthony Miller was ruthless regarding some of the contestants, cutting their performances short, describing their singing as awful, or not interesting.

enter another competition

Nadine Sutherland offered advice to some of the contestants who had good singing voices, but "chose the wrong songs," while Clyde McKenzie, on a few occasions, tried to investigate some of the motives performers had for entering the competition.

There was one male DJ with a coarse voice, who Anthony Miller advised to enter another competition, as it didn't fit this talent competition.

And one particular 'character', who gave his name as Remeo Lee Jones, had the judges in stitches - not only because his singing sounded as if he was reciting a poem, but generally, because he was acting quite strangely, and was wearing pink gloves.

Judges (from left) Anthony Miller, Nadine Sutherland and Clyde McKenzie during Digicel Rising Stars auditions at the Portmore HEART Academy.

Some of the contestants waiting on their turn to perform.

Latoya 'Virgin Siren' Chambers plays with her multi-coloured hair during the Digicel Rising Stars auditions held at the Portmore HEART Academy.

Remeo Lee Jones does push-ups as a warm-up ritual prior to his performance.