T&T soca acts in showdown for Ansa McAl anniversary

Ansa McAl Trading Limited will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this evening, with a grand concert dubbed the ‘Soca Showdown’ that will feature Trinidad and Tobago acts Kes the Band, Destra and her Band, Bunji Garlin, Fayann Lyons and the Asylum Band and Blaxx and the Roy Cape Band.

The musicians yesterday afternoon touched down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, where they greeted awaiting fans and promised to deliver a memorable show.

Destra

Destra declared that the ‘Queen of Soca’ is here and prepared to deliver a memorable concert filled with energy and excitement.

“Machel [Montano] is king but I am queen! So whatever he brought last Saturday, I’ll be bringing it 10 times bigger. Don’t get me wrong, Machel is a boss! He is a boss! But we will be blowing up the stadium,” she told Stabroek News.

The soca star added that depending on the reaction of the audience and the atmosphere this evening, she will decide whether to unveil some new items she has been working on.

Lead vocalist for Kes, Kees Dieffenthaller said he always looks forward to performing in Guyana because of the good fan base here. “It’s a real big soca showdown so we can have some fun tomorrow. Looking forward to that energy, we are going to bring a little bit of carnival from Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow. It’s a celebration as I know emancipation is Wednesday. We really wanna party, everyone is really excited,” he stated.

He added that the show should not be considered a showdown between his band and the other acts but one where they all will be coming together and giving their all. “We will be giving our all. If you miss, you miss out,” he said.

When asked about whether fans could expect an energy-filled show of the kind Montano delivered on Saturday last, he noted that each artiste has their own individual brand. “It’s just different colours of paint on a canvas.

You can’t compare red to blue, ain’t no colour better than another colour. Wotless is Wotless. Advantage is Advantage. We just wanna spread that love and joy throughout the region,” he explained.

Blaxx told reporters that he is looking forward to a beautiful show. “I understand that a lot of my music is popular here, so I am really hyped, really pumped. I wanna taste the food, see some parts of Guyana and do something different,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the husband and wife duo of Fayann Lyons and Bunji Garlin said that they love performing in Guyana but lately, they have being doing extensive work outside the Caribbean with some European artistes which will soon be released.

“Tomorrow, the nice thing about my style is that it’ll get very creative because I am a freestyle artiste. I will bring some nice variety to the show and this cast that we have is a multidimensional forum that will take place tomorrow [tonight],” Garlin said.