Ricky T: St. Lucia Power Soca Monarch

RICKY T

It's slowly but surely proving to be the year of repeats in terms of who takes the crown at Soca Monarch this year as last night in Mindoo Philip Park in Castries, St. Lucia, Ricky T joined Skinny Fabulous & Faye-Ann Lyons (who everyone knows really won last year but was robbed) as repeat winners of Soca Monarch. In my opinion, however, he wasn't the best performer on the night (more on that in a minute) and the competition was rather strange also. One of the first performers (second actually) was an artist by the name of Kakal who spent half of his time showing a movie on a screen wheeled in on stage which I couldn't really see well (and it was in Creole) and then reached the stage looking like Swamp Thing. He actually didn't do too bad and neither did the first performer who was a youth name Orion (who had some backing dancers who were VERY easy on the eyes) but it was so strange. And speaking of strange, it was also very strange a performance by one Platinum George of a song name Funny:

(be careful as hell with this damn song, it grows on you and stays with you).

George was dressed up as a clown and at that point had to be voted second as he followed Superman (bka Pringles) alongside Teddyson John who did a BIG performance for the tune Up, Up Away which was the first time the crowd REALLY got mad (including yours truly). That performance ended up hanging on for third actually.

The favourites, all of them, didn't file in until the second half of the show with Isla Man being one of the first performers after the intermission. To my opinion, Isla Man should've taken the crown. He had crazy crazy crowd response, his song, the MASSIVE I Want My Back is probably the best I've heard overall from St. Lucia 2K9 and the song really has nice lyrics and a POINT. Ricky T and the rest came much later as the final artists on the show. His performance was, of course, really good. I, my wife and my cousin and others around us IMMEDIATELY figured he was going to set himself on fire as he came dressed in a costume with everything but his face covered in a fire suit looking thing. And, of course, he did. The performance itself was MADNESS! I'm not AT ALL saying Isla Man was robbed because, in my opinion, either Ricky T or Isla Man (and only them) had done enough to win. QPid also did pretty well although she apparently had audio problems which she (made a mistake in doing) acknowledge on the mic! You can't do that and win a crown like this and she didn't even end up placing.

The last two performers were Mantius who did a very nice creole song name Kote Moumou (or something like that) which had to be one of my favourites of the night. And Alpha, who (previously unbeknownst to me) had won this crown on multiple occassions and who had taken the Groovy title last week (where I thought QPid had won, although I wasn't there), closed the competition with a song named What U Waiting For:

Which I absolutely LOVE! But he stayed on stage entirely too long and it didn't help him that he was going last either. And for the first time in how long, we left BEFORE they announced the results (good for us!).

The worst performance definitely came from some Frankenstein looking Calypso who I'd never heard of and probably will never hear of again. He was joined by a fellow name Winter who the MC (who was entertaining all night, both of them, despite the fact that they, like most MC's, talked too damn much) said lived in Barbados and he did a song name Carnival Again which was pretty standard but received ABSOLUTELY NO CROWD RESPONSE. There was also 'Jessica' who turned Black and Caribbean Xena Warrior Princess with the very strange Road Warrior.

All in all, despite the fact that, looking around online today, the response internationally has been very poor, with people calling the show really bad from watching it. I, eternally easy to please when it comes to Soca, had a pretty good time. Even in the bad performances, I liked looking at the show and learning the new music and artists.

And its been a minute since last we've ran to St. Lucia and its always nice, I love how you walk around and listen to the people talk CONSTANTLY varying between English, Patois and Creole and sometimes all three in the same conversation. I was a little disappointed that Nicole David didn't perform her hit Release De Tiger

(which you can now download on Amazon, iTunes (I think), Emusic and fine digital retailers everywhere). And I'm looking at David (who I think won it back in like 2005-06) or QPid to represent for the ladies and take Lucia Road March this year.

But the wife and I are headed back to Michigan tomorrow and FINALLY back home next weekend. Biggup my cousin Mackee Fyah and his lovely wife Kasandra for putting us up for the weekend and showing us around the place.

Official Results

1. Ricky T

2. Isla Man

3. Superman & Teddyson John

My Order

1. Isla Man

2. Ricky T

3. Superman & Teddyson John