Music education to benefit from BIM Got Talent finale

School music programmes are set for a much-needed boost, as organisers of the BIM Got Talent Youth Sing-Off finale announced that proceeds from this year’s event will go directly towards strengthening arts education across the island’s secondary schools.

The show, slated for Tuesday, January 20, will see ten young performers competing for top honours, with organisers describing the event as both a showcase of emerging talent and a targeted intervention to strengthen arts education at the secondary level.

Creative director of the show, Randy Mr Quantum Eastmond, said the initiative was deliberately structured as more than entertainment, with funds raised earmarked to directly support music education in schools.

“This press conference is not simply an announcement of an event; it’s a declaration of intent,” Eastmond told reporters over the weekend at De Bar, Worthing, Christ Church. “It is about youth development, cultural preservation, and national investment through music and the arts. The Youth Sing-Off finale and fund-raiser exists for a clear and urgent purpose: to directly support school music programmes across Barbados.”

Eastmond pointed to longstanding gaps in arts education across the school system, arguing that music was too often marginalised.

“In many of our schools, music education is under-resourced, often treated as an extracurricular activity, or rather a luxury, rather than a developmental necessity,” he said.

He added that the benefits of music education were well established. “Research consistently shows that music education strengthens cognitive ability, improves academic performance, builds discipline, enhances emotional intelligence, and fosters teamwork. For developing nations such as Barbados, these outcomes are not optional; they are definitely essential.”

Special guest Senator Roshanna Trim said initiatives such as BIM Got Talent played a critical role in youth engagement and national development.

“We need to find new ways to engage young people, through the arts, because we know that the arts change lives, we know that the arts can have an impact,” she said. “In doing activities like this, we build resilience, and we build young people who are confident.”

Trim warned that failing to invest intentionally in young people carried serious risks for a small state.

“If we don’t invest in them, if we just leave them to wander, if we do not intentionally pour into them, we get whatever happens, and we cannot risk that for a small country like Barbados, where our only natural resource is our people,” she said. “We cannot afford to leave the development of our people to chance.”

She also called on the private sector to play a stronger role in supporting youth-led initiatives.

“We need more initiatives like this, we need corporate Barbados to not only create their own initiatives, but to support the initiatives of young people, so they feel like their contributions are valued and worthy,” Trim said.

Founder of BIM Got Talent, Kevin Sluggy Dan Watson, said the competition was created as a platform to highlight the depth and diversity of Barbadian talent, particularly among young people who might otherwise lack access to major performance opportunities.

The entertainment and talent showcase has grown in prominence for spotlighting singers, performers, and creatives across the island, with a particular focus on youth development, cultural expression, and community impact. Organisers have increasingly aligned the competition with social causes, using its platform to reinvest in areas seen as critical to national development, including education and the creative industries.

(SZB)