CULTURE: Echoes of the voices of the Northern Islands at Villa Gumbs | FAXINFO

June 10, 2025

Last Saturday, the 5th edition of the singing competition, "Les Voix des Îles du Nord", brought together 17 candidates and around fifty guests at Villa Gumbs, in La Savane.

Between 19 p.m. and 23 p.m., amateur singers in the "teen" and "adult" categories performed in front of a very engaged audience. With the song of their choice, the youngest singers kicked off the competition before giving way to the more experienced singers. "We have more teens than adults for this edition. Ultimately, adults are less daring to go on stage than young people," confided Joanita Ferdinand-Grot, founder of the Soleil Karaib association, which initiated the competition. Formerly a teacher at Soualiga Middle School, she wanted to give hidden talents a chance to be revealed: "As part of my music class, I was preparing a musical with my students. And I heard extraordinary voices. There was incredible talent! That's when I decided to create an event so that their voices would be heard and rewarded." In front of a trio of judges, the teenagers and adults sang until the two grand prize winners of the golden microphone: Mathieu Dumas and Jessica Joseph-Théodore. For the next edition, Joanita hopes to obtain more support from her partners to ensure the sustainability of this promising event, because even if the Collectivité de Saint-Martin participates in its realization, it remains mainly financed by the care of her association. _LM