As part of the continued efforts to support the well-being of our crew by opening an avenue to showcase their talents, and to encourage teamwork and camaraderie on board, the Battle of the Bow music challenge was launched early this year.
To allow more vessels to participate, the competition defined band as having at least two members. Vessels were allowed to choose a song to perform (including original composition), and were given creative freedom in making their video entry. The only requirement was for the band to play the music and sing the lyrics.
A total of 14 vessels joined the competition:
The competition would award two prizes, each worth an additional USD 600 in welfare funds:
The Favorite Band was determined through online votes via Forms for the organization, and the Odfjell Seafarers Facebook page for the seafarers’ family members and friends outside Odfjell. However, the data from Facebook was found to be compromised, so the organizers had to make the difficult decision of foregoing the Facebook votes and relying on the internal votes.
We understand that our band members and the crew, along with family members and our seafarers’ friends, worked hard to campaign for their respective bands. We truly appreciate this, more than we can express. At the same time, we would like to apologize – this decision was not made lightly and was in no way meant to invalidate any of your efforts. Rest assured this is a learning moment for us and if we are to stage a competition like this again, we will definitely choose a more reliable platform for online votes.
- Virtual Socials Crew, Battle of the Bow organizers
The Best Band, meanwhile, was selected by a jury based on the following criteria:
The jury was composed of five colleagues from various offices, three of whom are musicians themselves:
The jurors were all impressed with the entries, and were in awe of the immense talent shown by all of the participants:
Congratulations to all the bands that entered and of course special applause to the top three. It was very hard to judge a winner! Loved all the creativity and talent that went into these videos, very impressive.
- Denise Buzek Schaefer
The level of performance was really high, warm applause to all the bands for the fantastic musical experience!
- Monika Gosiewska
It is evident that the participants have had very different access to recording equipment and I have not taken into consideration the actual quality of the recordings, but solely based on the impression I have of their instrumental and vocal performance as well as overall rating. I must say that I am mightily impressed by the creativity and the musical ability that sits within our crew.
- Bjørn Hammer
Due to the overwhelming support received by the competition from both the participating vessels and our colleagues alike, it was decided to give out runner-up awards in addition to the Best Band award. Both runner-ups will receive USD 250 in welfare fund.
The Virtual Socials crew will reach out for the distribution of prizes. Again congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated!
