Soca Monarch- The Good The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

At a little after 10:00pm on Fantastic Friday 4th March, 2011 the anxiety of many Soca lovers was put at ease as the International Soca Monarch competition got underway. The vibes was nice for the Groovy competition that saw three of the competitors standing out from the other 15 finalists. 

Blaxx was the first of these, he had the crowd like putty in his hands as they obeyed his every command. Hands were waving, he even gestured to them how to do the Tanty Woi dance and they leaned on his every word. I was impressed by Blaxx's stage performance, less so by his vocals and at least this year he was in the groovy category and didn't have to run up and down the stage as much as with a Power song (not that he ever does). Blaxx even told the crowd "If you want me to finally win a competition put your hands in the air." of course they submitted and if it wasn't for the two other competitors below he surely would have. 

Benjai the clear crowd favorite was another stand out Groovy performer on the night. As his name was called by the MC the crowd went into a frenzy!!!! His presentation was amazing!!! Who say props (finally) He made great use of our national colors and a display of Our new national anthem was sung word for word and the crowd was moving, waving, dancing and singing throughout the entire performance. He even kept his usual cries of "ahh" si me dim" "sim me ah" at a tolerable level. To me there was never a low point during his performance and he was deserving of the Groovy Monarch title. In the end when we was adorned with red white and black drapes of cloth like a maypole it was perfect, patriotic and even beautiful. In that moment Benjai was intertwined with his nationality, a proud proud Trini. 

The competition however could only have one winner.. and that was Kes with his wotless self! Definitely deserving of the Groovy Monarch crown, Kes had vocals that were on point, his energy on stage was amazing, he had a good presentation and he got a Wotless reaction from the crowd. From his opening cry of 'Ah Wotlesssss' it was pace pace pace although the performance to me had its moments of normalcy. He related to the crowd and told them that "Wotless is the people's song." and that "All a we Wotless." Kes saved the best of his theatrics for last and stripped down to his underpants and proceeded to wine and jam on some thicky thicky thick girls. Just the kind of Wotlessness the crowd and clearly the judges wanted from their Groovy Soca Monarch King. 

Special mentions:

Vocals- Megan Walrond- De girl has really clear vocals and a powerful voice! 

Entertainment- All Rounder- *Shaking my head* If you thought the semis was good you should have seen the finals! lol good stuff!!! 

Best use of Props- Saucy Wow- Too bad her vocals didn't wow on the night :( victim of a long season and a horse voice. 

The Bad

Oh boy were there a lot of these. Where do I start... hmmmm I'll start where it all started at the beginning. 

• Walking into the venue I realised that the main display screen on stage was not even as big as those in screen 1 and 2 at Movie Towne and that I have seen flat screen televisions bigger than the display screens that were on either side of the stage (sorry for those persons who were in the stands hope they had binoculars). 
• Flag crews in the middle of the stage. The view of the stage is totally obstructed we done so far in the back already! This has always been a problem at Soca Monarch and is one that is really hard address. Those crews are going to do what they want at the end of the day unless you stop the crews all together but they add to the mix and the fun of the show as well so that's not an option. Has anyone ever thought about raising the stage a few feet higher? Just my suggestion. 
• Ok Groovy competition just finished and I had a couple Stags so time to pee. Who tell my bladder do that! Went to the restroom by the athletes entrance there, my two friends trailing and had to take a piss while standing in piss. :s One of the toilets overflowed apparently sigh. 
• Just finished peeing time to go back in the show they telling us and everyone else that we can't pass back through the entrance we came out of and that inside the venue we just came out of is too crowded and we have to go up to the stands and stay there. Well boy you know that caused a scene! Then Police Officers came on the scene and kicked everyone out and we all had to retreat to the stands. But we wasn't taking that of course after all we paid our money like everyone else we have the right to access wherever we want within the confines of our section. So we saw an open gate leading to the grounds from the stands. Of course there were a hundred persons trying to get in and out a 4 foot wide exit along a 6 foot long pathway. Two timid Fire Officers couldn't contain the crowd and we forced our way through, some persons were crushed along the way, who was crying, who friends got lest behind (you would swear we was the 2012 movie or something). However mission accomplished and we all got back onto the field. That incident proved the failure of logistics, proper systems of control of access through entry and exit points throughout the venue. 
• Ok so when we went up to the stands and was able to see how many people were really in the Hasely Crawford Stadium for this event. It was scary!!!! The grounds was literally filled to capacity, the Stands just had a few spaces in between and persons were still attempting to come in from the entrances. Madnesssss!!!! How many tickets did the CPF really sell? Why were they allowed to sell so many tickets? I'm sure there is a ceiling figure of the amount of persons the stadium can hold for such events and it was clear that the stadium was at overcapacity! The health and safety risks of this event were of drastic proportion. I was literally scared! I shuddered to think of what would happen had an emergency occurred. The Fire Services didn't do their job well in that regard at all and shame on the Caribbean Prestige Foundation for overselling tickets in the first place. Greed is a hell of a thing! 
• As a result of the overly massive crowd by 3:00am the only drink left was Carib. 0_o Bar buss!!!! Hell no! A man couldn't even get water! 

The Ugly

Power Soca Monarch time....the moment everyone was looking forward too! The battle between the heavyweights of Soca music! Bungi, Iwer, Machel, Fay-Ann and Destra and boy did it get ugly!

Iwer was up to bad first and he stepped onto the crease in a plane! Yes... the Boss came on stage from a crane maneuvered airplane prop which sent the crowd in an uproar!!! Always a crowd pleaser Iwer didn't miss a beat. The crowd came to him, moved away from him and he also insisted they point at the judges and go towards them, which of course they did. His performance on stage was as commanding as ever and he made good use of his props, jab jabs and all. The power of the song just infected the masses and he didn't have to do much to incite them to move! In during his performance he insisted that he "wont stop singing soca and live in Trinidad and find a Trini gal and eat trini fowl, every night I like down in my bed, Trini gal singing in my head." At the end of his performance he took off on his plane again to chants of Iwer Iwer Iwer. The chants continued throughout the night and it was clear to all who everyone wanted to take the crown. The downfall of his presentation however was time, his theatrics from boarding and exiting the stage from his plane took a bit too much time. 

Machel Montano HD hit the stage sometime later and took full advantage of the support of all his dedicated fans and his hiatus from the Soca Monarch stage. He zip-lined from the ceiling and the crowd went into a frenzy as the first chimes of "The stage is in front of us time to get Advantageous" came in. The crowd stamped on it... trampled it... rampfulled it... and jumped on it. Whatever Machel said to do they did. He also had some cool use of those zip-line strings as his dancers flew across, up and down the stage and through the crowd. During his performance Machel poked jabs at his main rivals Destra, Iwer, Bunji and Fay-Ann. He specifically targeted Bunji asking him in his marriage who really is the woman and who is de man sending the crowd crazy. Machel zip-lined from one end of the stage to the next to end off a brilliant return to Soca Monarch. The downfall of his presentation was him actually singing the words to his song, the background music sang more than him. Coming down to the end of his performance there were chants from the crowd of Iwer Iwer Iwer.  

Destra came on right after Machel and was disappointing. First of all she performed "We own it" a new song no one in the crowd really new. I overheard a patron near to me say "Why doesn't anyone know this song Destra?" Her performance seemed lackluster and she wasn't the energetic Destra that we all know and love. During her set she hit back at Machel calling him disrespectful and saying "All of us artists work hard, how dare you." She urged the crowd to put their two hands in the air if they don't believe anything Machel just said and they obliged. At the end of the performance she told the crowd to enjoy the evening and exited the stage. 

Bunji the 4 time Soca Monarch Champion came out spitting fire!!! Flames emitted from everywhere on and off the stage as the fireman spit the venomous and relevant lyrics to his song Hold a Burn with precision. He immediately attacked his competitors redeeming himself from the previous jabs Machel took at him sending the crowd in a frenzy. He proved on the night that he is indeed the best lyricist in Soca music and probably the most competitive as well. "HD say say Fay-Ann is de man and I am de woman, well tonight a woman will beat you real bad in this competition. So stupid de boy look inside de stadium and they calling somebody else for champion. Now they real boo the crowd nearly pelt too, now is the time to go and get Anand Ramlogan to help you. Tell them hold a burn hold a burn HD wait your turn you come back this year next year you cannot return!" He also gave props to his other competitors in the competition and said it was a great year for soca. We all wondered what his stage show would feature and he was able to find creative ways to utilise the fire element that featured prevalently in the lyrics of his song (and a couple of his past Soca Monarch winning compositions). The downfall possibly was that he was too lyrical in his jabs at other competitors and that he highlighted Machel too much as some thought it was petty. I saw Bunji's lyrical jabs at Machel pre and  during the competition as one alfa male targeting and sizing up his main competitor another alfa male for supremacy of the pack. After all it is a competition isn't it? 

Faye Ann, consider it done! Unfortunately for Fay-Ann she drew #14 and it's hard to end a competition especially one of such high intensity and quality. At 5:00am in the morning many of the crowd were tired and some had already left however Fay-Ann was her regular commanding self on stage. For the most part the crowd was nevertheless excited and when she climbed onto a scaffolding tower she took charge of her performance even more and demanded that the crowd mash up! For me it wasn't one of her best performances but boy oh boy did she ever look hott!!!! Her vocals were also on point but one of her downfalls was her lack of props (the mini Lyons army wasn't cutting it) and well not getting the crowd response as Iwer, Machel, Bunji which I really feel was only a result of her position in the competition. 

In the end Machel Montano HD was named the new Soca Monarch 2011 to jeers of nahhhh from the crowd. Iwer came 2nd, Bunji 3rd and Fay-An 4th. I would really love to see the judging criteria for this monarch and I think it was safe to say that the majority of the crowd were disappointed. Nevertheless the judges decision is final and it is what it is. 

My choice of winners were 1st Iwer, 2nd Bunji, 3rd Machel and 4th Fay-Ann. 

Who were your winners, disappointments, highlights and losers on Fantastic Friday?