It was the sound of sweet soca that stirred the crowd of thousands that descended on the Bushy Park motor racing circuit to see the battle of the seven trying to wrest the Soca Royale crown from defending champion Mikey.
It was a ding dong battle between a Fearless Mr Dale, coming in at No. 1, Ian Webster, who had the patrons Moving and Enjoying themselves, and Mikey who excited the crowd at No. 3 with Enjoy My Life. Blood, Biggie Irie and Red Plastic Bag topped off the better performances.
If crowd response and stage performances are to go by, it’s Blood, Mikey, Biggie Irie and RPB, maybe in that order.
With confetti, streamers, balloons, fireworks and movie themes for some of the presentations, a number of artistes preferred the simpler route of having just a couple of dancers.
The overbearing heat of the day was eased by the at times strong breeze that came across the venue, but the heat on stage was hardly relieved as some of the artistes came out to win the $7 500 cash prize and the Kia Rio up for grabs.
Mikey transformed himself into a stilt walker, Biggie went African, Blood had a piece of Arturo Tappin’s horns and a special visit from Mighty Gabby. RPB and his dancers spelt out Bacchanal.
The artistes afterwards said they were comfortable with their presentations and everything went as planned. Webster acknowledged his voice was strained. Blood said he wouldn’t mind a one-two with his Soka Kartel partner Mikey. RPB said he had nothing to prove or lose. Biggie said he would love to win but acknowledged, as did Mr Dale, that the competition in the Sweet Soca was stiff.
Also performing was Natahlee and Timmy at Nos. 4 and 5.
Performance is worth 25 points, melody 15, voice riding the rhythm 15, arrangement 15, lyrics 20, presentation five and crowd response five.
By the time the Party Monarch competition started after 7 p.m. the crowd had swelled, ready to party.
