Open letter to entertainer Machel Montano:
Machel, today you are the un-disputed king of soca; you are soca. Our people pray that you do not see your dominance of soca as an end in itself. You should passionately seek to become an international star, like Rihanna is and like Bob Marley and Eddie Grant once were. We peruse the Billboard charts and the English charts, but as far as the world stage is concerned, soca does not exist; Machel Montano, Shurwayne Winchester, Kerwin Du Bois and Super Jigger TC do not exist.
We are our music, soca is our soul, our communion with God and Mother Africa. We must concede that if our way of life is not world-class worthy in some respect, whether it be culture, sports, academia etc, then we are nothing but second-class people in the international arena. Machel, you are the one to make our music internationally successful. If you do not pull it off, then it will not be done for another 20 years.
You need to simultaneously establish two separate careers. One end-goal is to do what you are currently doing: every year seek to win the International Soca Monarch competition, and secure gigs throughout the March-to-December period playing for West Indian audiences in America, Canada, England and the Carib-bean islands.
Your other end-goal must be to release three singles each year about two months before the Notting Hill Carnival that feature outside-of-Trinidad Carnival soca dance songs and love songs, creating a new outside-of-Trini-dad Carnival funky and groovy soca with non-Carnival lyrics. You must select an established Billboard music genre and mold your outside-of-Trinidad Carnival soca to fit into that genre; a genre which has its own international radio stations and markets.
We desperately need an additional outside-of-Trinidad Carnival soca if we are ever going to make soca internationally marketable. Within this new and additional genre of soca we can create original songs as well as cover R&B and pop international hits. When you compose complete songs by yourself, you are a second-class composer; you should always use co-writers whose strength lies in coming up with great melodies; your strength is primarily coming up with strong lyrics.
You must be aware that people such as Kernal Roberts and Kerwin Du Bois, who are great at composing Carnival soca, would not be great at composing outside-of-Carnival soca; the two genres must be kept separate. You should seek out co-writers who have nothing to do with Carnival soca, preferably people with a strong jazz background.
You must not seek to secure an international hit via one of your Trinidad Carnival hits catapulting into international success; one of your outside-of-Trinidad Carnival soca hits must conquer the Notting Hill, Toronto, New York and Miami carnivals, grab the attention of non-West Indian radio stations in those cities and there-by catapult into an international hit.
After you get an international hit by your own doing, then an international recording contract will automatically follow. Machel, if you take soca to the world stage, you will be taking our nation to the world stage.