AFTER ENTERTAINING THE Pic-O-De-Crop and Sweet Soca competitions for the last six years, entertainer Geoffrey Biggie Irie Cordle is sitting out this Crop Over.
And, he is looking forward to “good fun and good fetes” during the festival.
“Sometimes you just have to take break to recharge and analyse,” he told WEEKEND BUZZ after performing at the Crop Over In The City concert last week in Independence Square.
“I will be analysing and wheeling and coming again. I made the decision since last year. I thought I had a good run from 2011 to 2016 and I did well. I had a couple seconds, a win. I did pretty good. I just said I would take a break and come back fresh,” he said.
With no pressure or stress to compete, Biggie Irie said he will be enjoying himself as he performs at a “couple shows”, with tent mates of De Big Show which pitches on June 17 at the Sea Rocks Dome, and on Sundays at Blakey’s in Hastings where he performs with Scott Galt.
Rehab, one of his 2017 songs was written by a “new” writer from Trinidad, Khalen Alexander from the Street Sweepers team.
“He sent songs to the Red Boyz and they thought Rehab would be good for me. So, they sent it to me, I listened to it and said ‘yeah, it is good’,” Biggie Irie said. His other song, After the Fete, was written by Omari Ferrari who lives in St Maarten. That will be released soon.
The entertainer, the only Barbadian to win the Groovy Soca Monarch contest in Trinidad, doing so in 2007 with Nah Going Home, said that people are always sending him songs to listen to.
“I have an inbox full of songs I have not even opened as yet. All through the year, all the time. Everybody just seems to think my voice would suit their song [and] sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. [When I’m choosing a song] it has to represent my brand, something that I would stand for. I wouldn’t do a wuk-up and a bumper song, that’s not me. The song has to be melodic, positive and be something that has appeal not only to my audience here in Barbados and the Caribbean but it has to have international appeal. Those are the kinds of songs I look for,” Biggie Irie told WEEKEND BUZZ.
As a full-time entertainer, he travelled to “quite a few places” including London, the Canadian cities of Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver, and Trinidad during the last year. He explained that some months are busier that others and in a couple of weeks he will be heading to North Carolina, then Boston in the US to perform. After that he will be heading back to Edmonton to perform at Reggaemania, an annual showcase of reggae music.
So, what was the highlight of Crop Over 2016 for him?
“Performing in the tent. I like the intimacy of the tent, the camaraderie, being backstage with the guys is a lot of fun . . . . Pompey, Adonijah, Serenader, Bag, sometimes Gabby is there, and Grynner and we just talk, reminisce and we have good fun.” (GBM)
