Lo­cal so­ca artistes should be made am­bas­sadors for T&T. So said chair­man of Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion, William Munroe, dur­ing yes­ter­day's semi­fi­nal draw at the Queen's Park Oval for the Pow­er and Groovy So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tions. Munroe said: "In Grena­da so­ca artists are giv­en diplo­mat­ic pass­ports. The same should be done in T&T be­cause over the years they have pos­i­tive­ly sold our cul­ture in­ter­na­tion­al­ly." He not­ed there were over 300 artistes who en­tered in­to the pre­lim­i­nary round of the com­pe­ti­tion, the high­est ever, but on­ly about 50 would take part in the semi­fi­nal round of both the Pow­er and Groovy So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tions on Sun­day at the Ari­ma Velo­drome.

Munroe praised the sup­port of the Gov­ern­ment and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for the com­pe­ti­tion, through the do­na­tion of the $2 mil­lion first prize. "The $2 mil­lion prize is a small dent, con­sid­er­ing over $300,000 was spent on air­line tick­ets for in­ter­na­tion­al celebri­ties who are at­tend­ing the event," he said. Munroe al­so said his com­pa­ny was ne­go­ti­at­ing with rap­per P Did­dy to at­tend the event and help pro­mote so­ca mu­sic in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. He added: "The cost of hir­ing P Did­dy was more than US$1 mil­lion, which is too much.

"This proves if we de­vel­op our artistes, we can sell them to the world where they can shine." He not­ed there was con­tin­ued par­tic­i­pa­tion by re­gion­al artistes in the com­pe­ti­tion through his com­pa­ny's ef­forts with three par­tic­i­pants com­ing from Grena­da this year. Machel Mon­tano, who re­turned to the com­pe­ti­tion af­ter a 14-year ab­sence, said he was hap­py with his per­form­ing spot (21)."Two plus one is three, that is my favourite num­ber," he said. Mon­tano wished the oth­er com­peti­tors the best but said to ex­pect some­thing tru­ly spe­cial from him at this year's fi­nal.The fi­nal, dubbed Fan­tas­tic Fri­day, takes place on March 4. Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed is one of the main spon­sors of the com­pe­ti­tion.

The list of com­peti­tors (in or­der of ap­pear­ance)

Pow­er So­ca Monarch semi­fi­nals

Zu­ki/Tim Tim ( Keon Boodoos­ingh/Greg Hen­ry)

Ajala (Kei­th Suther­land)

Madd Zart (Raeon Primus)

Im­ij & Co/ Michelle Xavier

Blaxx

Kevin Ce­les­tine

Ter­ri Lyons

Bun­ji Gar­lin (Ian Al­varez)

Lil Bits

Ghet­to Flex (Hilton Dalzell)

Princess Adana (Adana Roberts)

Crazy (Ed­win Ay­oung)

Na­dia Bat­son/Patrice Roberts

Tall­pree (Wilt Cam­bridge)

Shal Mar­shall

Faye-Ann Lyons

Iw­er "The Boss" George

Patch (Roger Joseph)

De­stra Gar­cia

Denyse Plumber

Machel Mon­tano HD

Tony Prescott

Megan

C'Do­nia (Wes­ley Hoyte)

Pelf (Vic­tor St. Louis)

King Kon­ris (Kon­ris May­nard)

Ravi B

Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter

Er­phaan Alves

Groovy So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion semi­fi­nals

Chucky ( Rod­er­ick Gor­don)

Or­lan­do Oc­tave

Lil Bits ( Shiv­onne Churche)

Shal Mar­shall (Steven­son Mar­shall)

Ri­car­do Drue

Blaxx (Dex­ter Stew­art)

Yan­kee Boy/Patch ( Kevon Heath)

Ben­jai (Rod­ney Le Blanc)

Ravi B (Ravi Bis­samb­har)

Megan (Megan Wal­rond)

Nni­ka Fran­cis

De­stra Gar­cia

Sug­ar Jay (Jude­lyn Chi­tan)

Saucy Wow (Denise Bel­fon)

Mr Ren­zo (Lawrence Adams)

Farmer Nap­py (Dar­ryl Hen­ry)

Patrice Roberts

Su­per Jig­ga TC (Ter­rin Cal­len­dar)

All Rounder (An­tho­ny Hen­drick­son)

Lyrikal (De­von Mar­tin)

Cas­si (Cas­siano Sylvester)

Swap­pi (Mar­vin Davis)

Kes Di­ef­fen­thaller

Mr Dale (Dale Rud­der)

Ker­win du Bois

Jah­moun (Jah­moun Men­doza)

Na­dia Bat­son

Zan Joel Fevek

Kim­ba Sorzano