Michelle Loubon

Chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Southex George Singh says the first prize for tonight's Chut­ney So­ca com­pe­ti­tion re­mains at $1 mil­lion be­cause he in­curred ad­di­tion­al costs due to the move to Queens' Park Oval, Port-of-Spain. It is billed as One Caribbean One Peo­ple. The grand fi­nale takes place from 8 pm. In­ter­viewed yes­ter­day, Singh said: "I know peo­ple are say­ing So­ca Monarch is $2 mil­lion. But he said the pro­duc­tion (Chut­ney So­ca Monarch) sky­rock­et­ed to about $18 mil­lion. The move to Port-of-Spain in­curred a lot of ad­di­tion­al costs. There have been tremen­dous changes in cost. The show has ac­tu­al­ly tripled."

He ap­pealed to rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, es­pe­cial­ly for artistes to un­der­stand it was chief among the rea­sons for the con­sis­ten­cy in the prize monies. Among the cost fac­tors were fire­men and se­cu­ri­ty. Ear­li­er on, there had been a mea­sure of con­tro­ver­sy over the move from San Fer­nan­do to Port-of-Spain. Singh stood by his de­ci­sion. He main­tained it would re­dound to the ben­e­fit of the art­form. "It's a beau­ti­ful venue. We are hap­py with the fa­cil­i­ties. We have been wel­comed with open arms. We have good sup­port from the staff. Even if there is a small fall­out I know we would have a ca­pac­i­ty crowd at the Oval."

Artistes ex­clu­sive to Chut­ney/So­ca Monarch

Singh al­so said the artistes per­form­ing at the grand event were "ex­clu­sive to the chut­ney so­ca com­pe­ti­tion." He said: "The artistes are be­ing ad­ver­tised else­where. They are not per­form­ing any­where else to­mor­row night." Mean­while, as the clock ticks, Singh said: "We want peo­ple to come ear­ly to see the open­ing. It is a spe­cial part of the night. We have El­la An­dall open­ing the show." Apart from the chut­ney so­ca con­nois­seurs gy­rat­ing in the stands, Caribbean (Guyanese) and in­ter­na­tion­al view­ers will get a chance to wit­ness the spec­ta­cle.

Singh said: "The show is be­ing broad­cast live through­out the Caribbean. Mil­lions of peo­ple will be tak­ing it in. We have tak­en the show to a dif­fer­ent lev­el." He thanked Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston Pe­ters, spon­sors and the state com­pa­nies for the con­fi­dence they have re­posed in the art­form. He al­so thanked the me­dia for their sup­port and in par­tic­u­lar Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed for their sup­port.

Good luck to artistes

Singh ex­tend­ed best wish­es to the artistes along with their man­agers and sup­port­ers. He said: "They are all su­per­stars. It is a plat­form to take them to stages around the world. The pro­mot­ers will be scout­ing for tal­ent. I am ex­cit­ed about the Guyanese per­form­ers that are here for the first time." Guyanese com­peti­tors in­clude Fiona Singh, Ter­ry Gajraj and Haresh Singh.

Rik­ki Jai com­ments:

Quizzed on his chances, Reign­ing Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Rik­ki Jai, mem­ber of the Kaiso House Cast, at Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, said: "I am con­fi­dent of re­tain­ing my ti­tle. I have every­thing in place. I am tweak­ing every­thing. I want to en­sure when we get on the stage it will be ex­plo­sive." On the eve of his per­for­mance, Jai, who clinched the 2011 ti­tle with White Oak and Wa­ter, promised his fans a "dy­nam­ic per­for­mance." How­ev­er he re­mained tight-lipped. "The song is go­ing to be a sur­prise."

OR­DER OF AP­PEAR­ANCES

1. Rick Ra­moutar

2. Fiona Singh-Guyana

3.Haresh Singh-Guyana

4. Heer­alal Ram­par­tap

5. Oma­dath Ma­haraj

6.Sassy Ra­moutar-USA

7. Hunter

8. Artie Butkoon

9.Sal­ly Sagram

10.Rag­ga-Ian Joseph-USA

11. Nigel Sal­ick­ram

12. Ken­neth Su­per­sad

13. Rik­ki Jai

14. Resh­ma Ram­lal

15. So­ca Elvis

16. KI

17. Adesh Sama­roo

18. Ter­ry Gajraj