Ten-time Road March cham­pi­on and reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch Machel Mon­tano and nine-time Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Rik­ki Jai have emerged as the top two con­tenders in the fi­nal of the BMo­bile Chut­ney So­ca Monarch (CSM) 30th An­niver­sary com­pe­ti­tion.

Yes­ter­day, Southex re­leased the re­sults of the se­mi-fi­nals held on Sat­ur­day at La Trop­i­cal Club and said that be­cause of the high qual­i­ty per­for­mances more artistes will be tak­ing the stage at the grand fi­nals to be held on Car­ni­val Sat­ur­day - March 1- at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do. The or­gan­is­ers said Mon­tano and Jai had on­ly just a few points sep­a­rat­ing them but did not re­lease the scores.

The se­mi-fi­nal event, ac­cord­ing to Southex, held at La Trop­i­cal Club, saw an over­whelm­ing turnout, push­ing the venue to full ca­pac­i­ty. As a re­sult, Southex has de­cid­ed that from 2026, the se­mi-fi­nals will be moved to an out­door venue to ac­com­mo­date a larg­er crowd.

It added that an­oth­er high­light of this year’s com­pe­ti­tion was the seam­less fu­sion of so­ca and chut­ney el­e­ments, re­flect­ing the Afro and In­do-Caribbean cul­tur­al blend used by many of the 34 con­tes­tants, who brought the “A-game” to the se­mi-fi­nals. As such the pro­duc­ers, who were im­pressed by the high-qual­i­ty per­for­mances, have in­clud­ed ad­di­tion­al artistes in the fi­nal of the com­pe­ti­tion.

Fi­nal­ists

Join­ing de­fend­ing 2024 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Rick Ra­moutar and wild­card Ter­ry Gajraj are:

Machel Mon­tano

Wack­er­man

Reehan­na Gopaul

Ri­car­do Melville

Rik­ki Jai

Hur­ri­cane Hem­latha Din­di­al

Neval Chate­lal

War­rior Princess – Resh­ma Ram­lal

Mas­ter Saleem

Adesh Sama­roo

Veekash Sa­hadeo

Vanes­sa Ra­moutar