Horrendous Soca Monarch Semi Finals Vocal Performances | Trinidad & Tobago 2016


So what is new here? What is new is that the Trinidad Express newspaper published an article outlining an issue that has plagued the Soca Monarch competition for years! 

Horrendous... finally the genie is out of the bottle. We have said that most of the artists go on stage an shout! It is even worse to be out of key and shouting at the same time. Then again this is a sure way to learn whose voice was 'auto-tuned' by the music producers. Don't be alarmed or pretend you did not know that was the case; this has been the story line year after year. Don't you now have a greater appreciation for Calypsonians?

Another very annoying aspect of the performances follows the introduction of the singing performance and then... hold for it, the artist shouts "Low, low low"! He/she then proceeds to talk to the audience... totally unneeded and unacceptable.

The music critics may complain and bemoan the bad singing performance but the behavior of the audience attending the show was that of euphoria! They did not care about the quality as long as music was playing and the artist worked them into a frenzy; they came to fête and "it was Socatastic!" The drinking 'Spirit of Carnival' was in charge of the situation. C'est la vie, the show goes on!

The article from the Trinidad Express looks at the bad and the positive aspects of the show. We feature the 'bad' below. The following is an excerpt from the Trinidad Express newspaper. All rights reserved (Trinidad Express).

We encourage you to share your thoughts (about the singing performances) with us. All comments will be published. 

Excerpt from the Trinidad Express Article:
Horrendous. That's the only word that accurately describes some of the singing heard at the semi-final round of the International Soca Monarch competition, staged on Sunday evening, at the Grand Stand of the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain.

Several much-anticipated acts fell flat vocally during a series of uninspired displays that left fans disappointed and social media abuzz with scathing criticism.

Dancehall soca sensation Pternsky (Ronny Boyce), with his immensely popular “Non Stop”, and Patrice Roberts, “Money Done”, were perhaps the worst of the lot.

Pternsky was way off the key played by the backing A Team band, while the usually on-point Roberts hit some notes to make a politician cringe.

Breakout artiste Voice (Aaron St Louis), meanwhile, failed to capitalise on the momentum of his runaway Carnival hit “Cheers to Life”. The occasion seemed to get the better of the San Juan-based crooner, who failed to duplicate the charisma and impressive vocal range he has demonstrated on the fete circuit.

The Bajan duo of Peter “Ram” Wiggins and King Bubba (Adam Elias) were completely off the pace. Their lack of physical preparation showed as both men were always a millisecond behind the beat during out-of-breath performances of “All Ah We” and “Mash Up”, respectively.

Veterans Austin “SuperBlue” Lyons and Winston “Mighty Shadow” Bailey seemed at sea on the Soca Monarch stage with the former being near unintelligible and the latter completely forgetting his lyrics.

Blue, to his credit, did hit all the right notes on his 2016 composition “We Calypso”. His diction was so poor, however, that it was almost impossible to understand half of what he was saying.

A bewildered Shadow, meanwhile, turned haplessly to the band as he lost his way midway into “Doh Hold Meh Back”.

An ageing Iwer George performing “No Behaviour” lacked the gusto of past years. The Boss, as he now calls himself, struggled to keep pace with the song and failed to move the crowd.
© Trinidad Express

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