Press Release : MDG’s Goes LIVE ! Promotion

The College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at the Fiji National University is excited to announce that the MDG’s go LIVE Song competition closed at the end of January, with an excellent collection of original songs. Following a detailed review of the songs by a panel of 5 judges we are delighted to announce 10 winners from stage one with 12 songs.

This exciting new project sought to engage artists in the music industry to help the College and its partners determine if we can use the medium of “popular” music to communicate health messages to people of all ages and cultures and to engage people to be more aware of issues in relation to non-communicable diseases (NCD) and other issues of national importance.

We would like to congratulate our top 10 artists and their 12 winning entries and delighted to say that we are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the musical community and the quality of the entries that we received. Not just the quality of the music and composition but also the quality of the messages that have so expertly been captured.

Our top 10 winners (in alphabetical order) are:

• Elena Baravilala
• Eramasi Cama
• Iliesa Tora
• Knox Kalounisiga (2 songs)
• Luisa Bainimua Serevi
• Marika Nakete
• Paula Dabea Karawa
• Roko Vatuwaqa
• Saimone Vuatalevu (2 songs)
• Savuto Vakadewavosa

The winnings entries were songs with MDG messages which addressed:

1. Eradicating Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieving Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empowering women
4. Improving Children’s Health
5. Improving Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and other infections
7. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

These Top 10 Winners now with other artists vying for the Top 3 songs and will move through to the FREE, LIVE Concert that will take place on March 16th at the National Gymnasium. The College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences plan to have a high quality, professionally filmed live concert which will be a benchmark for Fiji. In addition to the top three song awards (of $5000, $3000 and $2000 respectively) that will be announced on the night we will also be making awards of $1000 each for the best performance on the night in English and in the Fijian vernacular.

We look forward with considerable interest to the promotion of these songs and messages on radio and to a memorable concert in mid March.