Kevon Felmine

As the 166th an­niver­sary of In­di­an Ar­rival Day was cel­e­brat­ed through­out T&T, some rev­elled in the con­sid­er­able evo­lu­tion of the mu­si­cal cul­ture. Last Sun­day, Southex pro­mo­tions in­vit­ed south Trinidad to in­dulge in the cel­e­bra­tions with a chut­ney ex­plo­sion at the Space La Nou­ba carpark in La Ro­maine. Pa­tron were al­lowed free en­try to the mas­sive mu­si­cal ex­trav­a­gan­za, which in­clud­ed top per­for­mances from Xtreme, Mys­tic, JMC 3Veni and the In­dosaf Melobugz, and a va­ri­ety of East In­di­an dish­es such as the pep­per shrimp roti, and pholourie.

It was pure ac­tion as up­com­ing chut­ney star Sal­ly Sagram and the band Xtreme start­ed off the show with a fine and heat­ed per­for­mance. Blessed with a scin­til­lat­ing voice, Sagram's 2011 chut­ney hit Rock So Nah had fans rock­ing. The artiste blend­ed some fine singing with her danc­ing skills, and set the prece­dent for a great night. Mys­tic was on next, and the blend of Hin­di and Eng­lish dis­played the beau­ty of East In­di­an mu­sic. Per­form­ing a mix­ture of mod­ern day chut­ney and past chut­ney so­ca hits, the band was able to keep the au­di­ence in a vi­brant mood.

How­ev­er, it was the women's heart­throb, KI Per­sad and JMC 3Veni that stole the show, and en­tered on­to the scene with fire­works il­lu­mi­nat­ing the sky. No More Rum Again, the song that won him third place in the 2011 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch, had the women in a win­ing ses­sion, much to the de­light of the men.

Nishard M ren­dered a se­ries of ro­man­tic pieces, as sexy Savi­ta thrilled with her sen­su­ous body move­ments. The show end­ed on a high with the In­dosaf Melobugz, a band which boasts of a wide reper­toire of chut­ney so­ca remix­es.

The Pre­mala Dance Acad­e­my brought down the house with fine East In­di­an danc­ing, along with the vi­brant sound of the drums from the SSL St John's Tas­sa Group. This cel­e­bra­tion was an­oth­er brain­child of Southex CEO George Singh Jr, who said he want­ed to use every op­por­tu­ni­ty to bring peo­ple to­geth­er through mu­sic. Singh said the idea came as he ob­served the ab­sence of Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions around the city of San Fer­nan­do. "This is some­thing that has nev­er been done be­fore and it's some­thing I plan to keep an­nu­al­ly. This was great and it was all free to the pub­lic." Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma praised the ef­forts, adding that the event rep­re­sent­ed the mu­si­cal as­pect of In­di­an cul­ture.