Marlon ‘Malo’ Webster took the 2007 Carib Soca Monarch title in a landslide on Sunday night, with an energetic, creative and intense presentation that captured the imagination of the judges and the hearts and souls of the crowd.
Until ‘Malo’ stepped onto the National Park stage asking those present to “Give it to Me”, no artiste had really energized and thrilled the crowd. Dressed in a suit of shimmering gold, the performer himself dazzled the eyes while dancers on the stage and swinging from the girders created a live circus-like atmosphere. Maybe as a result of his campaigning at various shows recently, the ladies were hooting for him even before he touched the stage. A chorus of “Malo! Malo!” shook the venue.
As if this weren’t enough, a forklift entered the venue at stage front and Malo, declaring his intention of taking the competition to the next level, boarded it. He then requested the operator to push to its highest level, which was as high as the roof of the stage; some 20 feet up. Attached to the lift was an extended piece of gold cloth hanging down to the tarmac with ‘Malo’ written on it; yet another spectacle to dazzle the eyes.
In addition to this, shortly before he arrived on stage, females had distributed golden rags with his name inscribed for the fans to wave during his performance. Though not much of a song by any standard, Malo clearly put his ‘golden’ touch on it and made something of it earning for himself 455.5 points for a clear win without a chance of protest from anyone. He later said the song meant many things to him at different times but on Sunday night it meant “give me the title”.
Some 16 performers were slated for the evening but by the first intermission Rudolph ‘Sweet Kendingo’ Kendall who had accomplished the great feat of performing in both the calypso and soca monarch preliminary competitions on the same night in different regions, opted out leaving 14 contenders and reigning monarch Adrian Dutchin of X2 fame to squabble over the bounty.
The bounty included $600,000 for the Soca Monarch, $300,000 for second place and $150,000 for third place. The best newcomer was also set to receive an undisclosed prize for his/her efforts.
The judges responsible for ensuring the proper distribution of the spoils after the dust settled were Dennis Ward, Julia Johnson, Oliver Basdeo, Margaret Lawrence, Patricia Chase-Green, Basil Bradshaw, Robert Burns, Marlon Williams who was the scorer and Sean Bhola who was once again chief judge, after holding the post in the aborted Berbice soca semi-final. They were looking for lyrics, melody and stage presentation all 20 points each; with lyrical performance, 25 points and crowd response, 15 points.
Early in the show, Wilbur ‘Lil Man’ Levans stamped his authority with his “One for the Road” repeating some of the charismatic vibe he had created in Berbice. He took second place with 388 points.
Orlando ‘Bonesey’ Johansen followed up his majestic performance in Berbice with another good attempt at snatching the crown on Sunday doing “Hands Up”. Though his melody and lyrical performance were good he did not get as much of a crowd response and had a too-simple stage presentation depicting the Masai Warriors of Africa. The artiste, who some say has a Trinidadian artiste ‘Bunji Garlin’ sound, was however able to lift the best newcomer prize and cop third place with 378 points.
Shellon ‘Shelly G’ Garraway looked pretty, sounded good and had a reasonably elaborate presentation. But it was not enough to have the judges nodding in unison. She was able to tie with Dutchin for fourth place as they both garnered 375 points.
Maybe it could be said that Dutchin was overthrown by a revolutionary air flowing through the venue for though he was able to get a bigger crowd reaction than most of the other performers during his usual elaborate multimedia intro, depicting his travel through time up to his ascending the throne last year, sections of the crowd were loudly booing one of Guyana’s finest.
Other performers who held some crowd interest were Lois ‘Sweetie’ Moseley with her song, “Suzy Don’t Lie Down So”, which had a video introduction and live demonstrations of Suzy and her peculiar ways. Vanilla also played the part of “Queen of the Band” well donning a workable costume piece.
