Bo­bie-lee Dixon

Semi­fi­nal­ists in the Dig­i­cel In­ter­na­tion­al Pow­er and Play Whe In­ter­na­tion­al Groovy So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tions will to­mor­row bat­tle for a place in the fi­nals at the Ari­ma Velo­drome. Hav­ing picked their per­for­mance po­si­tions at the Greens Carib Brew­ery Ltd in Champ Fleurs last Wednes­day, each artiste will at­tempt to prove on that stage their wor­thi­ness of gain­ing a place in the fi­nals. In or­der to do that though, they must im­press the judges in the ar­eas of melody, per­for­mance, arrange­ment, lyrics, groove and crowd re­sponse. In the Pow­er cat­e­go­ry, melody car­ries 25 points, per­for­mance 25, lyrics 20, arrange­ment 20 and crowd re­sponse ten points. In the Groovy cat­e­go­ry 25 points is the max­i­mum score for melody, per­for­mance ten, groove ten, arrange­ment 25 and crowd re­sponse five points. The T&T Guardian caught up with some of to­mor­row's semi­fi­nal­ists who shared their feel­ings about their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the com­pe­ti­tion.

• Pow­er Cat­e­go­ry

Mea­gan Wal­drond

Per­form­ing for the sec­ond time in the Pow­er cat­e­go­ry, songstress Mea­gan Wal­dron says she is pleased with her po­si­tion which is num­ber eight and is con­fi­dent of her se­lec­tion-Fan Dem Away. "I am re­al­ly com­fort­able with the num­ber I am per­form­ing at. I am phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly pre­pared for to­mor­row and I am just go­ing out there and give it my best." She al­so loaned words of ad­vice to fel­low artistes. "Stay fo­cused and do your best. If you don't make it, it is not the end of the world, you would learn from this ex­pe­ri­ence to bet­ter your­self for the next time."

Vic­tor Pelf

In 14th po­si­tion, Vic­tor Pelf, aka Pelf, is feel­ing good about every­thing, as he says in a tele­phone in­ter­view. "I feel good about every­thing. This is one of the great­est com­pe­ti­tions and the great­est ex­pe­ri­ence for all artistes. It is a dream for 99 per cent of artistes who en­ter So­ca Monarch. "I am con­fi­dent about my song and I am just go­ing to give my best by the grace of God."

Prophet Ben­jamin

Speak­ing on Prophet Ben­jamin's be­half his man­ag­er Rick Davis of Coun­trie Book­ie En­ter­tain­ment said Ben­jamin is look­ing for­ward to mak­ing it to the fi­nals. "Prophet Ben­jamin is new to the so­ca world and it's his first time in the So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion," said Davis. "We be­lieve that peo­ple are an­tic­i­pat­ing his per­for­mance as it's his first time. "He has not been per­form­ing much for the sea­son so we know that peo­ple are anx­ious to see how he per­forms this song (Throw Wine.) "Prophet is very com­fort­able with his po­si­tion (num­ber 23) and he thinks his chances are very good and he is con­fi­dent of mak­ing it to the fi­nals."

• Groovy Cat­e­go­ry

KI

Sin­gle For­ev­er may be a Chut­ney So­ca piece but it is def­i­nite­ly loved by the mass­es. Singer Vee­shal Kris Per­sad, aka KI, is bask­ing in the bless­ing of be­ing a part of such a grand com­pe­ti­tion and says just the idea of him go­ing up against such big names in the so­ca are­na, is in it­self a huge ac­com­plish­ment. Said KI: "I am re­al­ly hap­py about just be­ing a part of So­ca Monarch. I am pleased with my per­for­mance po­si­tion which is num­ber nine, and I am just look­ing for­ward to putting on a good show and mak­ing it to the fi­nals. "An artiste on­ly en­ters a com­pe­ti­tion with the de­sire to win and that's my de­sire but if I don't, I am glad to have just made it this far."

Li­ma Cal­bio

Li­ma Cal­bio has trav­elled the world tour­ing with the late By­ron Lee and the Drag­o­naires per­form­ing for var­i­ous types of crowds. You would al­so re­mem­ber her as one of the front-lin­ers of Blue Ven­tures. For the first time she will com­pete in the Groovy cat­e­go­ry with her of­fer­ing That Some­body. "I am su­per ex­cit­ed and I am pleased with my po­si­tion which is fifth place. I think it's enough time for the dust to set­tle and to get rid of the lit­tle nerves. "I am very con­fi­dent of my song... it's a tad bit on the old school side see­ing that I come from the days of Blue Ven­tures, so I would like to think that I may have a bit of an edge over some of the per­form­ers be­cause of my ex­pe­ri­ence. I am com­ing with ex­pe­ri­ence so watch out!" she laughs.

Ker­win Dubois

Ker­win Dubois is cer­tain­ly hav­ing a bumper Car­ni­val with his "break­away" song Bac­cha­nal­ist. With nu­mer­ous book­ings and the most re­quest­ed artiste for 2012, he has every right to be con­fi­dent that he will make it to the fi­nals and prob­a­bly steel the whole show on Fan­tas­tic Fri­day. What is prob­a­bly more ex­cit­ing to see Dubois per­form his chart-top­per is the fact that he is "mash­ing up" all by him­self-no col­lab­o­ra­tion on bac­cha­nal­ist. The T&T Guardian spoke with his man­ag­er Dion Heath who mouth-pieced Dubois was feel­ing ex­treme­ly con­fi­dent about stamp­ing his name in the So­ca Monarch Fi­nals this year. He said Dubois had been hav­ing a tru­ly blessed sea­son as all of his of­fer­ings are hits and well adored by par­ty lovers and pro­mot­ers alike, which is un­com­mon for an artiste. "Bac­cha­nal­ist is a song that any­one in the world can iden­ti­fy with once they un­der­stand the mean­ing. "Ker­win is hav­ing a very good sea­son and he is very con­fi­dent he will do ex­treme­ly well at the fi­nals."