The First Shenzhen English Singing Contest ended Saturday with a prize-giving ceremony.

The contest was initiated by the organizing committee of the Speak¡¤Shenzhen campaign, which is designed to boost English speaking in the city.

The monthlong competition attracted participants from all walks of life, including entertainment, education, tourism, commerce, taxation and frontier inspection.

More than 600 people entered the contest. The oldest was 82 while the youngest was only 7. It also attracted much attention from expatriates from Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

A total of 62 singers entered the semifinals with 22 going through to win first, second, third or special prizes.

"The standard of the performers was exceptionally high, and the level of some singers was world class," said Joe Keehan of New Zealand, one of the judges. Keehan, an English teacher at Shenzhen Polytechnic, is a musician.

He compared the adult first-prize winner, Li Na, with famous American singer Whitney Houston.

"The competition was fierce. Some excellent singers couldn't pass the English conversation test, some failed the comprehensive knowledge part," said Li Na, a frontier inspection officer at Luohu Checkpoint.

Li said she was an English major and her good spoken English might have helped her survive the contest.

During the ceremony at the CITIC City Plaza, other winners were also invited to perform in front of a large audience.

The first-prize winner of the juvenile group, Zeng Jingjing, 10, was popular with her rendition of the song Proud of You. Colin Brewer, an English teacher at Shenzhen (Nanshan) Concord College of Sino-Canada, also won a big hand from the audience with The Other Day to guitar accompaniment. Brewer took home a special prize.

Editor: Donald