Caribbean Queens of So­ca—Patrice Roberts, Na­dia Bat­son, De­stra Gar­cia, Ter­ri Lyons, Nailah Black­man and Al­li­son Hinds—will be cel­e­brat­ed by YES Pro­mo­tions at two events. The first will be at the Sun­dar Popo Au­di­to­ri­um, South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), on Jan­u­ary 31, and the sec­ond at the Lord Kitch­en­er Au­di­to­ri­um, North­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) on Feb­ru­ary 1, at 7 pm.

YES Pro­duc­tions said they’ve billed these shows as very spe­cial pro­duc­tions, as they cel­e­brate their head­line act Patrice Roberts, who cel­e­brates 30 years as a pro­fes­sion­al artiste. The events will al­so fea­ture two of 2024’s hottest artistes Olatun­ji and Mi­cal Te­ja, who will ser­e­nade the queens.

Get­ting to know the queens:

The To­co lass Roberts, who is a cousin to in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-renowned Bun­ji Gar­lin, has been cap­tur­ing the hearts of mu­sic lovers at home and abroad from a very ten­der age. At age nine, she was crowned win­ner of the 1995 San­gre Grande Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch; in 2001, she won the Na­tion­al Ju­nior So­ca Monarch, Na­tion­al Li­brary Ca­lyp­so Monarch and Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tles, re­peat­ing the lat­ter in 2002. Af­ter be­ing a run­ner-up in the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion in 2003, she teamed up with Machel Mon­tano to win the 2006 Road March ti­tle with Band of the Year. One of Robert,s biggest hits, Mind My Busi­ness, which soared in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, was adopt­ed by rap/hip hop sen­sa­tion Nic­ki Mi­naj.

De­stra Gar­cia, al­so known as the Queen of Bac­cha­nal, was born lit­er­al­ly in the bow­els of cul­ture as her birth­place is next to the orig­i­nal Des­per­a­dos pa­n­yard, up Laven­tille Hill. Doors to the big stage were opened for Gar­cia when, at the age of 21, Dr Roy Cape in­vit­ed her to front for his All Stars band, fol­low­ing which she had a me­te­oric rise in so­ca, both as a com­pos­er and artiste. De­spite Gar­cia hav­ing nev­er won a ma­jor ca­lyp­so ti­tle, she’s re­spect­ed and adored as an icon of the art form.

Na­dia Bat­son has been a pro­fes­sion­al artiste for al­most 20 years. She was a song­writer, pro­duc­er and back­ground singer, be­fore opt­ing to step out in­to the lime­light as a so­lo singer. Start­ing with Kes The Band in 2005, and tour­ing the Caribbean and North Amer­i­ca, in 2011, Na­dia formed her own band, SASS Na­tion, now renowned as the on­ly es­tab­lished fe­male so­ca band on the plan­et. Na­dia has had sev­er­al hit songs in­clud­ing So Long, Fatt, and Catch­ing Feel­ings. For 2024, Na­dia’s much-in-de­mand sin­gle, Mar­ket, is rul­ing the air­waves.

Ter­ri Lyons, for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch stepped in­to the 2024 Car­ni­val sea­son con­tin­u­ing her win­ning ways. She re­tained the ti­tle of Re­gion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen of Queens in De­cem­ber of last year.

Called the Princess of So­ca, Nailah Black­man was BET’s 2018 Best New In­ter­na­tion­al Act nom­i­nee; Ja­maica’s Your View Best New So­ca Artiste awardee; and In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Awards Groovy So­ca Fe­male of the Year. Black­man’s 2024 Jam of the Year and Take Yuh Time are cur­rent­ly spark­ing the air­waves.

Bar­ba­dos Queen of So­ca, Al­li­son Hinds, famed for her Roll It Gal (2005), is Bar­ba­dos’ first fe­male and two-time Road March win­ner (1996,’97), and was al­so the first fe­male to win the Par­ty Monarch (1997). For 2024, Hinds brings Fine Wine.