Lindeners travelled from near and far to witness the Carib Soca Monarch semi-finals on Saturday and were not disappointed, after a night of upbeat performances, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
The competitors, braved the stage to represent their communities in a bid to be crowned Monarch for 2019.
Local artiste Kwesi Ace, and the Fame Band gave a warm-up performance that led the way for the first singer and newcomer, Shaima “Sexy Berry” Muna with her song, ‘Goddess of Soca’. She was followed by Melissa ‘Ms. Finess’ Pestano, with her ‘I don’t watch no face’, performance.
DPI said that they were followed by soca veteran Jomo ‘Rubber Waist’ Primo, who woke the crowd up with his song ‘Tribute’. He paid homage to the musical instruments and its operators.
Linden’s young monarch hopeful Roderick ‘Static’ Allicock signaled his intention to take the crown. With his bouncy lyrics “tell Jumo to go his way, he old and grey’ he had the crowd swaying with laughter.
Lindeners also showed a good response to the other home-grown artistes including, Lil Colwin with his performance of ‘Full Access,’ and Collin ‘Real Proof’ Prince with his ‘Push Back’ performance.
Another of the high-ranking performances for the night was Vanilla’s One Voice which spoke of the need for Guyanese to live in love and unity, DPI said.
The competitors were assessed on their song topic, diction, party appeal, stage performance, crowd response amongst other things.
Those going through to the finals are, Jumo, Lil Colwin, Static, Vanilla, Nesta, Sexy Berry, Miss Finesse, True, Ryan T, Real Proof, Passion, Vintage, Natural One, Sasha Melody, Stephen Ramphal and of course, reigning Soca Monarch Brandon Harding who will be defending his crown.
According to DPI, Harding said, “This is a competition and I thrive on competition. I know I am up against the likes of Jumo and Vanilla and Nesta, and there are some really good songs and good talent who are in it to win it, however, the only person who will beat Brandon is Brandon,”
The Carib Soca Monarch will walk away with $1.5 Million, while the runner-up will take home $750,000, while there is $500,000 and $250,000 for third and fourth place respectively. There’s also the $100,000 `Best New Comer’ prize, DPI said.
