Shaneka George Wins Richard Stoute Over-21 Contest: An Inspiring Success Story

It’s almost a week since Shaneka George won the Richard Stoute Over-21 Contest and she’s still heady about it.

The 22-year-old bested the other nine finalists to capture the title along with the trophy, the cash prize, and the BIMAP scholarship that comes along with it.

However, this victory became a testimony since it came the day after her dad was in an accident and couldn’t attend.

“I’m a Christian and I believe that if I had a gift, my voice, I would like to give it back to God so anything that I did, and do, I like to give it back to Him,” said Shaneka.

She gave two effortless performances of He’ll Do It Again and No More Night, a result of her Way to Calvary Seventh-Day Adventist Church and home church Goodland Seventh- Day Adventist background.

Mother Leonette George wanted her to enter the competition, which has been the launchpad for some of Barbados’ entertainment stalwarts, in her younger years, but for reasons unknown to her, it didn’t work out. Later, it was her father Gustin Forde and a friend who introduced her to it in 2022. That friend also entered the same time unknown to her but dropped out.

Singing is triumph for Shaneka, who started talking at five and singing in church around eight or nine.

“The problem was that because I had started to talk so late, a lot of times I didn’t know how to pronounce the words properly in the songs so yes, I would sound good, but people couldn’t understand anything I was singing. It was a lot of work to overcome this. I trained myself to learn how to speak properly. For singing, I had to look at the songs to understand exactly what the lyrics said,” Shaneka recounted.

The St Michael resident said her choices throughout the three years of competing were Alabaster Box, His Life For Mine, I See Red, Mercy Said No and No More Night.

“The band usually likes more hyped-up songs and anything with drums I like. When I heard He’ll Do It Again, a lot of people were telling me they didn’t like the song for my voice because it was very toned down and I said, what if I changed it to my speed, to a point where it sounds so rich. I changed it to how I wanted it. My boyfriend Nathaniel Moore didn’t like the original version either, but I asked him to hear me sing it. Afterwards, he was really impressed so I stuck with it.

“No More Night was actually a crowd favourite from the first preliminary and I said I would keep it. I was very indecisive about He’ll Do It Again or whether to sing His Life For Mine. I chose a more toned down song – No More Night – because the night before the finals I was told I had voice fatigue, which is a very bad thing before a competition.

“I was very upset about that and went home and cried the whole night. I told Nathaniel I wanted to drop out because I couldn’t believe I was being told that they (individuals working with contestants) were worried to the point that they didn’t know if I was going to pull through the first song.

“This is more of a testimony for me. I don’t know what happened that night but if I had to ask anybody if they could hear my voice was tired in the first song, everybody would tell me no,” she asserted.

Two years ago she was not among the five finalists. Undaunted, she returned in 2023 and surprised herself by placing second since prior to the finals, she was fourth or fifth.

“I was so tired, and I didn’t clock it until I was going home. And I was asking, ‘Did I really come second, and everyone was like, ‘Yes’,” Shaneka said, before laughing at the memory. That spurred her on to enter this year.

“Now that I’ve won, I would like to continue singing, especially gospel. I saw a comment under one of the [competition’s videos on social media] where someone said they were so happy to see a gospel singer winning the contest. I found it interesting too because looking back at the videos, I never saw any gospel singer winning the Over-21 Contest.”

She advises anyone who is indecisive to put their trust in God.

“That is the number one priority in anything you’re doing. When you get up in the morning, thank God first of all for getting up and ask Him for guidance. You can’t get anywhere without asking Him first.” Shaneka is grateful for the friendly, helpful and family-like atmosphere among the contestants, especially with second-placed Kenyah Joseph and Lisa Hackett, who was third. (GBM)