SuperBlue (Austin Lyons) and Shurwayne Winchester are among the finalists who will be attempting to dethrone Machel Montano at the Play Whe International Power Soca Monarch competitions on February 8 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. The list of finalists in both the Power category and the Digicel International Groovy Soca Monarch competitions were released yesterday by Caribbean Prestige Foundation (CPF).
Montano will be defending the titles in both categories. The results saw some surprises as for the first time in more than a decade Iwer George, who won the competition three times, has been excluded from the Power category. Since the results were revealed yesterday, fans have been flocking to social media Web sites to give support to their favourite artistes and comment on the list.
Groovy finalist Nadia Batson sent this tweet to her twitter followers: "Thanks for supporting me. We're in d groovy final! Didn't make it in Power but I'll still make you proud in the one category. Give thanks!" The final of the competition will be streamed on CNC3 and online with Slam 100.5 FM. Guardian Media Limited is the official media partner of Soca Monarch 2013.
Finalists
Finalists for the Groovy Category:
1. Rodney Le Blanc (Benjai)
2. Denise Belfon
3. Destra Garcia
4. Patrice Roberts
5. Dexter Stewart (Blaxx)
6. Drupatee Ramgoonai
7. Iwer George
8. Nadia Batson
9. Darryl Newton Henry (Farmer Nappy)
10. Ravi Bissambhar (Ravi B)
Finalists for the Power Soca category
1. Austin Lyons (SuperBlue)
2. Rodney Le Blanc (Benjai)
3. Devon Matthews
4. Shurwayne Winchester
5. Lornette Ned Reid (Fya Empress)
6. Marvin Davis (Swappi)
7. Jason Williams (JW) and Ancil Isaac Jr (Blaze)
8. Destra Garcia
9. Wilt Cambridge (Tallpree)
10. Shivonne Churche (Lil Bits).