Heav­en “Snakey” Charles says he cried when he re­watched a record­ing of his per­for­mance at the Ul­ti­mate So­ca Cham­pi­on (USC) com­pe­ti­tion se­mi-fi­nal yes­ter­day morn­ing. The event was held on Sun­day at the Na­pari­ma Bowl Am­phithe­atre in San Fer­nan­do.

“It ac­tu­al­ly brought tears to my eyes be­cause I am very pas­sion­ate about what I do ... I am over­whelmed and very, very grate­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to do what I love,” he said.

Charles was one of ten so­ca artistes to ad­vance to the fi­nal of the com­pe­ti­tion. Five youth artistes al­so moved to the fi­nals in that cat­e­go­ry.

One week be­fore the se­mi-fi­nals, Charles en­tered the or­der of per­for­mance cer­e­mo­ny, un­cer­tain of his fu­ture as he was one of two re­serves. But the de­ci­sion by Tril­la G from Do­mini­ca to with­draw gave the De Ham­mer singer a spot in Sun­day’s show.

“On the night when I came off the stage, I felt a mag­ic,” he said.

On Feb­ru­ary 20th, ten so­ca artistes will com­pete to be­come the first Ul­ti­mate So­ca Cham­pi­on at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Along­side Snakey, artistes such as Yung Bred­da, Nailah Black­man, Ding Dong, and Preedy will com­pete for a chance to win $1 mil­lion and for a shot at a per­for­mance in an in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­val.

But there were some big names who did not make the cut, among them Jar­dine “Jadel” Cher­relle Leg­ere and Vanes­sa “Nes­sa Prep­py” John.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Jadel said she was not sur­prised by the re­sult and wished those who qual­i­fied the best.

“I be­lieve I had a great per­for­mance, crowd re­sponse and pre­sen­ta­tion were great, how­ev­er, these things are ex­pect­ed,” she said.

John’s pub­li­cist Adan­na As­son said they re­spect the judge’s de­ci­sion.

“Both her and M1 had a great time per­form­ing and shar­ing the song with those that were present and they wish the fi­nal­ists and every­one in­volved all the best,” she stat­ed.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Aaron Dun­can, who al­so did not qual­i­fy for the fi­nals. The four-time ju­nior ca­lyp­so monarch said he was not dis­ap­point­ed and will try again next year.

Five up­com­ing so­ca singers al­so qual­i­fied for the youth cat­e­go­ry and a chance at the 200,000 first prize.

Be­fore the se­mi-fi­nal, Kern “Trinidad Kil­la” Joseph had to ex­it the com­pe­ti­tion be­cause he was un­able to be phys­i­cal­ly present. His plan for a holo­graph­ic per­for­mance was re­ject­ed by the or­gan­is­ers.

On Fri­day, award-win­ning so­ca star Iw­er George al­so with­drew from the com­pe­ti­tion.

Ul­ti­mate So­ca Cham­pi­on fi­nal­ists:

Ani­ka Berry – Sad­dle

Bla­ka Dan (Grena­da) – Bless­ing

Cas­sell – Sen­sa­tion­al

Dash (Grena­da) – The Tape

Ding Dong – Throw­back

Nailah Black­man – For­ev­er

Or­lan­do Oc­tave – Auc­tion

Preedy – Blaze Fire

Snakey – De Ham­mer

Yung Bred­da – Great­est Bend Over

Re­serve: GI - Mock­ing Mout

Youth So­ca Cham­pi­on fi­nal­ists

Chris­to - Uni­ty

Kristi­na James - Like Dat

Paris Coutain - Lick Up

Sack­ie - Ta­ble

Su­cre - The Great­est

Re­serve: Verrse - Pump It Up