WHEN Natasha Brandt-Johnson and her daughter Jadiamond Johnson decided to compete in this year’s Mother and Daughter Pageant, they knew that they had to bring their ‘A’ game.

They worked hard and after delivering a “powerful” performance on the night of the pageant, they were declared the winners of the senior category.

The Buzz recently had a chance to speak to the 41-year-old mother and her 19-year-old daughter about their pageant experience.

According to them, the pageant was everything they expected it to be and they enjoyed every aspect of the experience including meeting and interacting with the other mothers and daughters.

Modelling together on stage was new to them and according to Natasha, her daughter has dreamt of becoming a model.

“I guess just walking the stage gives her this hype and all the boost and confidence to go into the pageant that she’s applying for right now,” she said.

Natasha recalled that on the night of the pageant there was a lot of crowd support.

She said persons were cheering them on from the time they stepped on the stage.

“Persons were screaming and when you looked in the audience, it was not only the persons who represented you who were cheering for you…the whole cultural centre, they were backing us. I think that was amazing,” she added.

According to Natasha, in the days leading up to the pageant, they decided not to showcase their entire routine during the practice sessions.

“One Sunday, we gave them a glimpse of what we were doing [on pageant night],” she said adding that they thought it was best to keep parts of their routine under wraps until pageant night.

Asked about the royal blue gowns that they wore, Natasha said that a lot of thought went into it.

“We studied pageantry and how a queen will look and we came up with the colour.”

She praised the designer Naomi Murray for putting together the final look.

“We knew it was the year of the pearl, so we didn’t want to do too much because we thought everybody would’ve come with pearls. She was the one that said we’re just going to put in a pearl where needed,” she related.

The excited mother said that the win was not a shock to her.

“I think because everyone told us that we got it, it was not a surprise because when we looked around and we saw our dresses, we knew we won and we knew that we had a powerful routine that nobody could have touched.”

Jadiamond who is a sixth form student at The Bishops’ High School likes to dance and sing in her spare time. She has applied to educational institutions abroad and is now looking for scholarships that could help to finance those studies.

Natasha is a teacher at the Saint Pius Primary School and her hobbies include dancing and meeting new people. Jadiamond is the eldest of her three children. (Faith Greene)