Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Three years after the International Soca Monarch (ISM) competition was discontinued, the event is to be resurrected.
Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell made the announcement at the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO) awards ceremony on Tuesday night.
“I will be instructing that an expression of interest go out. I putting it out from now for those . . . anyone who is interested in partnering with the NCC, partnering with the government for a new, renewed Soca Monarch-type competition to come back in 2025,” he said.
“We’re not going to wait until the last minute and then be caught in shambles. We’re doing it from now. We’re going to say how much we’re willing to partner with upfront and we’re inviting anybody who wants to be a promoter for the Soca competition to come on board.”
The last Soca Monarch competition, held virtually in 2021 because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, was won by Farmer Nappy with “Backyard Jam”.
The previous year, the last public edition of the event saw Neil Iwer George and Kees Dieffenthaller cop the Power Soca title with “Stage Gone Bad”, while College Boy Jesse won the Groovy title with “The Happy Song”.
The competition was discontinued because of a drop in attendance at an event that had been a marquee on the Carnival calendar since 1992.
In January, chairman of the National Carnival Commission Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters and Geoffrey Wharton Lake owner of Caribbean Prestige Foundation, organisers of the competition both declared that the event could not be staged this year because of a lack of funding.
Mitchell’s announcement was one of the highlights at Tuesday’s event where more than $3 million in prizes were presented to the winners and finalists in the Road March, Calypso Monarch, Extempo Monarch and Freestyle Monarch competition.
Mitchell also challenged artistes in all genres to follow in Montano’s footsteps and try their hand at calypso.
“If you name man, come into the Big Yard, come into the gayelle. You can’t be a true Trinbagonian performer without participating in a Young King’s or a Calypso Monarch,” he said.
The event featured performances by Road March champ Mical Teja and Calypso Monarch Machel Montano.
The crowd also got a taste of performances by the first and second-place winners of the Extempo Monarch competition when Black Sage (Phillip Murray), who placed second, appeared to unseat the winner Myron B (Myron Bruce) during their showdown.
Sage wowed the audience, making light of a moment when he almost fell while walking to collect his prize. He acknowledged that Nyol Manswell, a blind performer who placed third in the Freestyle competition, was more graceful when he collected his award.
“I come upstairs, I say in the song, to get meh prize for extempo renown. But what have meh embarrassed, yuh see, the blind man walk up the step better than me,” he sang.
Bruce responded by congratulating the Tourism Ministry and TUCO for putting on an exemplary Carnival show.
“This Carnival, I’m telling you, I was impressed. From a ministry perspective, it was one of the best. Mr Ainsley King, with you I wouldn’t pause, give our executive a round of applause.”
Mitchell and TUCO president Ainsley King assured that the “spectacular” Carnival will be even bigger next year.