An island-wide power outage and inclement weather are two occurrences any party promoter would hate to have happen on the day of their outdoor event. But on January 20, even with a two-hour-long power outage, bmobile held its seventh edition of Soca Spree at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago, with the crowd steadily filtering into the venue from as early as 9 pm. Machel Montano HD kicked off the live entertainment just before midnight, a very rare occurrence for a defending Soca Monarch champ to start a concert. While many patrons were initially not pleased that the star-studded cast started with Machel, they weren't disappointed at his performance. Because of this change in line-up, it may have been the only time since the inception of the Tobago concert that most of the patrons were inside the venue before 2 am.
Included in the HD line-up for the night were Farmer Nappy and Patrice Roberts. Visibly absent was front line singer Joel "Zan" Feveck. According to HD manager, James Walton, "Zan would not be performing with the band this season. "We have given him some time to focus on his music until he creates a sound and vibe that is more conducive to Machel's music. "It has nothing to do with him being kicked out of the group." Walton continued, "Zan is like an injured football player, do you put him in the game and risk further injury, substitute him, or take him out of the game and fix the problem? "We have decided to fix the problem." After the performance Machel was said to have been flown back to Trinidad on a helicopter to fulfill other performance duties.
Tobago based duo Fire Fusion came on next and had the difficult task of keeping the crowd's attention after a big performance. They did an excellent job and created a smooth transition for Shurwayne Winchester and YOU. Winchester's 2012 releases bred new life into his career and showed that the Tobago-born artiste is determined to stay in the entertainment game. The former Road March holder, gave everyone a reason to be addicted to wining. Although Winchester didn't like the fact that he had to perform after Machel Monatano HD, like a true professional, he showed no signs of discontent. Noticeably missing from the YOU line up was Amrika Mutroo, who was introduced to the media in November as a new face to his band. Instead, Winchester used one of his engineers to perform covers. Shal Marshall, Supa Jigga TC and Kerwin Dubois also made appearances.