Bo­bie-lee Dixon

Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter needs no in­tro­duc­tion on the So­ca Monarch stage. He has won the com­pe­ti­tion sev­er­al times and in 2006 dom­i­nat­ed both cat­e­gories when he took home the Pow­er and Groovy Monarch ti­tles. One can safe­ly say this To­ba­go-born artiste knows ex­act­ly what it takes to get the judges' nod. But for Shur­wayne, al­so a two-time Road March win­ner, there is noth­ing ex­tra he dis­plays at the com­pe­ti­tion oth­er than what he al­ways gives-100 per cent. "When­ev­er I per­form I treat all my per­for­mances the same. There is nev­er a half-heart­ed per­for­mance for one show and a great one for the oth­er. I al­ways present a show at So­ca Monarch," he as­sert­ed.

The 37-year-old Win­ing Ad­dic­tion singer, who has been rid­ing high on the air­waves with sev­er­al of his of­fer­ings this year, will vie for the ti­tle of So­ca Monarch in the pow­er cat­e­go­ry with one of his least pop­u­lar songs, We Love.

"The song that I have cho­sen to sing in the com­pe­ti­tion is not one of my very pop­u­lar songs. I do not think the pop­u­la­tion re­al­ly knows it very well but it is in no way a de­ter­rent for me," Win­ches­ter as­sured.

Not fo­cused on win­ning

There might be stiff com­pe­ti­tion come Fan­tas­tic Fri­day at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and al­though Win­ches­ter un­der­stands this, and will in­deed give his best, he has opt­ed to not fo­cus en­tire­ly on win­ning but rather hav­ing fun and gear­ing up for his up­com­ing events. "Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter is go­ing to have some fun...a blast and then go to my next per­for­mance af­ter the show," he laughed. He said he was fo­cused on his all-in­clu­sive par­ty, Ad­dic­tion, card­ed to take place in his home­town of Ari­ma on Feb­ru­ary 12. On Feb­ru­ary 15 the ac­tion will con­tin­ue for Win­ches­ter with his sec­ond at­tempt at the Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter In Con­cert For The Ladies show at NA­PA. Win­ches­ter was forced to re­fund pa­trons fol­low­ing a poor turn out at his first con­cert for the sea­son, al­so held at the same venue. This hard­work­ing artiste will al­so bring mer­ri­ment to the chil­dren of To­ba­go when he hosts his third an­nu­al chil­dren's show on the is­land on Feb­ru­ary 25.