KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Savi­ta Singh has be­come the first fe­male Chut­ney So­ca Monarch (CSM) af­ter a heat­ed fi­nal at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, on Sun­day night. How­ev­er, her achieve­ment has been met with scathing crit­i­cism by some con­tes­tants and fans.

Chut­ney so­ca lovers poured in­to the venue as 14 artistes vied for the cov­et­ed crown. Singh, a wild­card en­try, amassed 813 points from the nine judges to win the $400,000 top prize and a $30,000 bonus for al­so se­cur­ing the Queen of Chut­ney ti­tle with her song, The Ring.

In fact, women claimed the top three po­si­tions, as Rasi­ka Din­di­al placed sec­ond with 673 points and La­dy La­va was third with 662 points. Din­di­al earned $100,000 and an ad­di­tion­al $30,000 af­ter be­ing crowned Tra­di­tion­al Monarch, a new cat­e­go­ry in­tro­duced this year, while La­dy La­va re­ceived $75,000. De­fend­ing monarch Machel Mon­tano fin­ished fourth with 651 points.

Speak­ing to jour­nal­ists af­ter her vic­to­ry, Singh said she felt ec­sta­t­ic, over­whelmed and elat­ed, and was proud to have rep­re­sent­ed women on the big stage.

“I have rep­re­sent­ed my cul­ture; I have rep­re­sent­ed my fam­i­ly’s name, the Singhs. Thank you so very much. I al­ways knew I could do it,” Singh said.

“Women have come such a long way. We have strived a lot. We have done a lot for our­selves, and I have al­ways be­lieved in the strength of a woman, and tonight that was my main pur­pose of com­ing on that stage: to prove the strength of a woman.”

The win­ning song, The Ring, writ­ten by Singh and Rishi Ma­ha­to, is a play­ful tale about a woman who be­comes sus­pi­cious of her hus­band’s be­hav­iour, af­ter he leaves home well dressed for the bar but for­gets his wed­ding ring. The theme of mar­i­tal mis­trust struck a chord with many in the au­di­ence.

Sec­ond-placed Din­di­al, known for her tra­di­tion­al chut­ney style, per­formed Pong D Damadole, a light-heart­ed song about prepar­ing the pop­u­lar In­do-Trinida­di­an dish toma­to cho­ka, blend­ing Trinida­di­an di­alect and Hin­di to tas­sa drums and a so­ca beat.

La­dy La­va, whose re­al name is Keisha Har­ris, brought out co-singer Ravi B for a rous­ing per­for­mance of Cyah Pick, a song about be­ing un­able to choose a good part­ner be­cause all her suit­ors think she is “chupidee.”

Look­ing ahead, Singh said she plans to con­tin­ue spread­ing T&T’s flag in­ter­na­tion­al­ly while rep­re­sent­ing chut­ney so­ca mu­sic. She was ex­pect­ed to leave for New Zealand last night, where she has two shows sched­uled.

How­ev­er, the re­sults sparked con­tro­ver­sy among some artistes and chut­ney so­ca sup­port­ers, with many say­ing Din­di­al, La­dy La­va and Ravi B were the top picks.

Rick Ram and Fu­sion Band took to so­cial me­dia, where they said Din­di­al and La­dy La­va should have placed first and sec­ond, adding that Singh was not wide­ly known in the genre. Some even crit­i­cised Singh’s per­for­mance on the night, say­ing it was no bet­ter than that of the oth­er top per­form­ers.

In a live so­cial me­dia re­sponse, Tri­oTT’s Vicky Ram­per­sad al­so crit­i­cised the out­come, say­ing Din­di­al and La­dy La­va should have been the top two. She ques­tioned the con­tent and style of the win­ning song and sug­gest­ed the re­sult could dis­cour­age artistes from com­pet­ing.

“This has noth­ing to do with en­vy­ing women,” Ram­per­sad said, ar­gu­ing that com­peti­tors in­vest­ed mon­ey and tal­ent and de­served a fair out­come.

Re­spond­ing to the crit­i­cism, CEO of or­gan­is­er Southex, George Singh Jr, said it was not the first time a wild­card, se­lect­ed by pro­duc­ers, had fea­tured in the com­pe­ti­tion and not­ed that Singh had per­formed at the semi­fi­nals to qual­i­fy for the fi­nals. He said the com­pe­ti­tion was judged on per­for­mance on the night, not on song pop­u­lar­i­ty.

“Big songs some­times do not win com­pe­ti­tions. It is the per­for­mance on the night. There are cri­te­ria that we use to judge com­pe­ti­tions, and judges fol­low the cri­te­ria. We had nine judges, and every judge had Savi­ta first on the night. I think that was clear.”

He said he was pleased with the out­come of the fi­nals and de­scribed the re­sults as women fi­nal­ly break­ing the glass ceil­ing in the genre. Singh was the first fe­male win­ner in the com­pe­ti­tion’s 31-year his­to­ry.

“I think the show was re­al­ly ex­cel­lent, the pre­sen­ta­tions were over the top. I know it caused some de­lays be­cause peo­ple’s pre­sen­ta­tions were very elab­o­rate, and the set­up time took a lit­tle while. That is some­thing we def­i­nite­ly have to look at in 2027, con­sid­er­ing that it is a live TV show, but all in all, we are very pleased with the show,” he said.

Singh Jr al­so not­ed that the event drew one of the biggest crowds in years. He said sev­er­al changes had been made to the for­mat, in­clud­ing the first-ever semi­fi­nals in Port-of-Spain at Fla­va Vil­lage and the in­tro­duc­tion of an in-per­son screen­ing at GM Labs. De­spite scep­ti­cism about host­ing the fi­nals on a Sun­day, the turnout proved suc­cess­ful, and the for­mat is ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue.

He de­scribed CSM as an im­por­tant re­flec­tion of T&T’s cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty, com­bin­ing Afro and In­do-Trinida­di­an in­flu­ences in­to a unique mu­si­cal genre that has grown across the Caribbean and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly since its first show 31 years ago at Skin­ner Park.

“Over­all, I think the show was a great suc­cess. We are look­ing for­ward now to 2027 and tak­ing this a step for­ward,” he said.