In­nis Fran­cis

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Rick Ra­moutar is the new Chut­ney So­ca Monarch.

An emo­tion­al Ra­moutar, 38, was an­nounced this year’s monarch short­ly af­ter 2 am at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day.

With teary eyes, the Cou­va man was es­cort­ed on stage by his wife Vanes­sa Ra­moutar and chil­dren, sur­round­ed by his sup­port­ers.

Vanes­sa was al­so a con­tender in the race for a chance to win a $400,000 in­cen­tive at the 29th edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion host­ed by Southex Event Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny.

Ra­moutar said this was his 17th at­tempt in the com­pe­ti­tion and at­trib­uted his vic­to­ry to Vanes­sa’s in­put.

Ra­moutar said the song Lu­u­uz­zaa (Los­er) was de­vel­oped from a neg­a­tive so­cial me­dia post two months ago about him, which he con­sid­ered cy­ber­bul­ly­ing. He said it took the cou­ple 15 min­utes to con­struct the song af­ter the spouse of a fel­low chut­ney so­ca artiste on a so­cial me­dia live crit­i­cised his abil­i­ty, a post which made the rounds on­line.

De­spite pen­ning ten songs for the sea­son, Ra­moutar said Lu­uz­zaarr got the most trac­tion with view­ers and was the one he de­cid­ed to use in the com­pe­ti­tion.

“There was a so­cial me­dia out­rage and my name was call­ing a lot a cou­ple of months ago; so we took that and not just writ­ing the song, it is not just based on that but on the en­tire so­cial me­dia bul­ly­ing, school bul­ly­ing, we took that idea and we try to bring an aware­ness to­wards bul­ly­ing,” Ra­moutar said.

Prais­ing his wife for her sup­port, he said, “I want­ed her to win tonight be­cause I know she is my back­bone. Every­thing you saw on stage was all Vanes­sa’s idea, she put to­geth­er every sin­gle piece, out­fit, and pre­sen­ta­tion.”

Set­ting the bar high for more artistes en­ter­ing the in­dus­try, he con­tin­ued, “Over the past 17 years I give my best. My pro­duc­tion, this year as an ex­tra step, I brought to the stage my broth­ers from Guyana; Tony Cutts, Vi­ca­di Singh and Mas­ter Sal­i­mi Be­har­ry unit­ing our mu­sic to­geth­er, bring­ing every­one to­geth­er, as the Guyanese mar­ket has the most amount of lis­ten­ers ... We would con­tin­ue not just with our group but with all the younger artistes.

“Come next year, it not just go­ing to have one or two hit songs. It would have ten hit songs in the fi­nals and I want to work with each and every sin­gle one to ac­com­plish that next year.”

Bring­ing her A-game to the com­pe­ti­tion, Vanes­sa, with La­dy La­va, per­formed Suno Suno Bal­ana, pro­mot­ing women and ad­vo­cat­ing for bet­ter sup­port for those who are suf­fer­ing from men­tal and so­cial is­sues.

She stood by Ra­moutar’s side, en­dors­ing his win as a suc­cess to her strong fam­i­ly unit.

Vanes­sa said, “I am su­per ex­cit­ed, I felt like I won the com­pe­ti­tion, hard work paid off, not just with any song but a pos­i­tive song.”

Last year’s win­ner, Ri­car­do “Dad­dy Chi­nee” Melville placed sec­ond with 358 points, 51 less than Ra­moutar, while Rawythee Ram­roop was third with 350 points.

In the Chut­ney So­ca Queen cat­e­go­ry, Rawythee Ram­roop won the ti­tle and the $100,000 cash prize, while there a two-way tie for sec­ond be­tween Vanes­sa Ra­moutar/La­dy La­va and Shazeena “Shazzi” Ram­sumair, who sang XXX Dra­ma (Move On). Kavi­ta “Chut­ney Em­press” Ramkissoon was third with Dri­ver.

Ram­roop en­dorsed Ra­moutar’s win for his ded­i­ca­tion to the art form over the years.

“We rep­re­sent chut­ney so­ca mu­sic not just in Trinidad and To­ba­go but through­out the world and we would con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent every sin­gle day,” she said.

Southex CEO George Singh al­so pre­sent­ed three awards to Rafi Mo­hammed, for­mer Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Ravi B and Rooplal Gird­harie.

Re­sults

Chut­ney So­ca Monarch

1. Rick Ram, Lu­uz­zaarr – 409 points

2. ↓Dad­dy Chi­nee, Tas­sa and Pan – 358 pts

3. ↓Rawythee Ram­roop – Whin­ing Down To the Ground – 350 Points

Queen of Chut­ney So­ca

1. ↓Rawythee Ram­roop, Whin­ing Down To the Ground.

2. ↓Vanes­sa Ra­moutar/La­dy La­va, Suno Suno Bal­ana, & Shazeena “Shazzi” Ram­sumair, XXX Dra­ma (Move On).

3. ↓Kavi­ta “ Chut­ney Em­press” Ramkissoon, Dri­ver.