The National Carnival Commission (NCC) may have done more harm than good to the soca music industry by putting money into Soca Monarch. Soca Monarch organisers decided to give the so-called Power Soca more relevance and importance than the so-called Groovy. They decided to pay the Power Soca winner twice …
Read More »Famalay for the Road! Machel nears record; here’s how he compares with Kitchener and Super Blue
Soca star Machel Montano is now just one hit away from the all-time record for Road March titles, as he was awarded his tenth crown today by TUCO for Famalay—a collaboration which includes Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez and Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle. Famalay was played 346 times at the respective …
Read More »International Soca Mystery: Live Wire investigates a carnival conundrum
Question: If 20 people sang, wined and jumped up on a stage and nobody got a trophy, did it really happen? Answer: … Hello? Hello, Mr Munro…? It is the day after yesterday. But it still isn’t tomorrow. And surely it can’t be today either. The calendar says it is …
Read More »PHRASER’S STYLE: How the International Soca Monarch underdeveloped soca music
It has been the impetus for a few soca men and women to develop the capacity for serious money-making but, overall, the International Soca Monarch (ISM) has, for years, done a great deal to put the genre several steps back. It has encouraged unhealthy sectionalism and underdeveloped the soca music …
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