The stage is set for tonight's In­de­pen­dence Chut­ney So­ca Monarch at Skin­ner Park,?San?Fer­nan­do, where ten fi­nal­ists will bat­tle for the $.5 mil­lion first prize. The show, which is ex­pect­ed to kick off 8 pm, is an­tic­i­pat­ed to have all the "glitz and glam­our of the Car­ni­val edi­tion." Among the ten artistes are Dru­patee, Fal­co, So­ca Elvis, Sal­ly Sagram, Rik­ki Jai, Ar­ti Butkoon, KI Per­sad, Rooplal Gird­har­rie and Mo­hip Poon­wassie.

Ken­neth Su­per­sad is al­so set to com­pete and seems to be the strongest con­tender, hav­ing won both the pre­lim­i­nary and se­mi-fi­nals. The artistes have songs com­posed in re­la­tion to the na­tion's In­de­pen­dence. The event is pro­duced by Southex in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism in ho­n­our of the na­tion's 50th In­de­pen­dence an­niver­sary.

Guest artistes per­form­ing along­side the chut­ney singers in­clude JMC 3Veni and Melobugz. Dance acts are al­so set to thrill the au­di­ence as the Pre­mala Dance Acad­e­my, Shiv Shak­ti, Pre­ma Shak­ti, Priya Kel­ley Dancers and Am­ritham Shak­ti. The show will end with a vi­brant fire­works spec­ta­cle as the win­ner would be crowned Chut­ney So­ca King or Queen. There is al­so a sec­ond prize of $250,000 and a third prize of $150,000. All oth­er per­form­ers will re­ceive $50,000.