I’ve been crashing out super early most nights over lockdown but I managed a late Saturday night this weekend just gone to catch the Antigua & Barbuda Soca Party Monarch contest.
For those who don’t know the Soca Monarch competition happens on most of the Caribbean Islands (plus Guyana) where Soca music is prevalent. Artists in these tournaments are judged for the live performance (including a band, usually provided) of one of their tracks. Generally each artist will choose one of their favourites from that season, but due to Covid 19 things ran a little different this year for this particular one and there were a number of classic songs in the contest.
Of course the biggest issue was that, aside from the judges, film crew and presenters the artists had no crowd to perform to, except for those viewing at home who were encouraged to still get involved with call and response in the comments section of the live chat. In many ways this could have been a bonus for some artists, although a great crowd is a real lift for the performer, any artists who don’t catch the mood for whatever reason, have to work 10 times as hard to make sure the energy doesn’t get sucked out of them by a stiff response.
Energy was certainly not a problem for any of the performers this time, levels were high and in a world where live shows are often just seen as a necessary inconvenience, one great thing about Soca monarch contests in general is just how much the performance matters. Artists are judged on the originality and creativity of their lyrics, the arrangement and melody line of the music, but also on the rendition and, depending on the type of tune, whether they brought the ‘groove’ or the ‘party’ with them.
Set On revived his 2013 hit ‘Smile A Lot’ which was a previous runner up in the Groovy category but came in at third place this time (there was no distinction between the usual Groovy and Jumpy competitions, with just one overall winner). The main difference this time was, due to only being allowed minimal props, he relied on a little acting, taking the form of The Joker once again (as he did in 2013) but this time adding a rather sinister twist to the otherwise feel good vibe of the song.
In second place was Ricardo Drue with ‘Homesick’, a firm favourite on our Super Soca Show radio outings, in fact we’ve played it every week since it came out.
Although he had been sat on the track for four years before releasing, he couldn’t have a more relevant tune for our times as he laments missing his ‘home’ turf of the Carnival fetes. It’s a great track that can be found on his recent album of the same name. I had it on whilst jogging this evening and it’s fantastic.
In the top spot was another classic, this time it was the 2005 El A Kru track ‘Maria’ which helped secure this year’s Soca Monarch title for the song’s original vocalist Blade, no longer a member of his old band but now with Burning Flames. His faultless performance certainly showed just why he was asked to be a vocalist for arguably the island’s all time number one Soca family.
Although he never placed, my personal favourite and undoubtedly the people’s champion judging by the live comments section was Lyricksman whose questionable Covid 19 garlic remedy (not actually a remedy) extolled in his track Antrobibiogibatic (not the catchiest title but certainly a talking point) was forgiven with the stand out performance of the night whilst also being dressed as a gigantic clove of garlic.
Honourable mentions must also go to Destiny, a protege of the reigning Groovy Monarch Menace XL and his MnM camp, she gave a strong solid rendition of ‘I Like It’ which ticked all of the boxes for sure, and also newcomer Island Prince, who was the reigning Junior Groovy Monarch, certainly showed a lot of promise for the future.
Many other Soca Monarch competitions have also moved online, the one in St Vincent & The Grenadines happened last month with Sick-O taking the main title and D’Fusion winning the Ragga Soca title, whilst this coming Friday is the Cyber Monarch in Grenada which is also running differently with the same entrants for both the Groovy and Power Monarch categories and just one overall winner at the end. The line up for that is strong though with many of the islands top artists competing so I shall certainly be tuning in if I can manage another late night!
Don’t forget myself, Dub Boy, Sam Atki2 and Jonesy Wales host the Super Soca Show every Saturday on Ujima 98FM from 12-2pm (BST or GMT depending on the time of year). You can catch the last few shows on the Ujima website or previous shows on our Mixcloud. We have also started a Spotify playlist for the new tunes we play which started this week.
AAA BADBOY 