Sokah2Soca

Recession may be the main topic of discussion in Trinidad and Tobago these days but that did not have any impact on Sunday's Soca Monarch Semi Finals competition at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain. The grand stand was full and rocking as the artists competed for a place in the finals. 

The format change for the show faded in the background as the lure of 'being there' took precedence over everything else. "Soca First", the theme for this year's competition, was a reality on Sunday! The people love their Soca music and the artists and even though they (the artists) delivered horrible singing performances the crowd did not notice and feted with their Soca heroes.

Let's hope that the final performances will be quality performances. I could care less about the antics on stage. However, I do care about good singing performances. There is no opportunity for auto-tune vocal performances. No excuses and please stop the 'low, low, low'. I don't want any Soca artist to talk to me during the performance. Save that for the interview after the performance. Just go on stage and sing the damn song!

Listen to the songs (Studio Recordings/YouTube Playlist) the artists will sing on Fantastic Friday at the following link: Soca Monarch Finals - The Songs | Trinidad & Tobago 2016 

We are here today to feature the artists who made it to the finals. The finalists are listed below along with their country of origin:

Sobriquet  Voice Third Bass Preedy 5 Star Akiel Hypasounds Farmer Nappy Lyrikal Blaxx Cloud 5 Sekon Sta Patrice Ricardo Drue Pternsky Rikki Jai Shurwayne Shal Marshall Teddyson John Ola (Defend. Monarch)

Name of Singer/Artist Aaron St. Louis Adrian Hackshaw Akeem Chance Akil Borneo Damian Etienne Darryl Henry Devon Martin Dexter Stewart Big Red, Melo, KC & Scout Nesta Boxill Patrice Roberts Ricardo Barriteau Ronny Boyce Samraj Jaimungal Shurwayne Winchester Stephenson Marshall Teddyson John Olatunji Yearwood

Country Trinidad Trinidad Trinidad Trinidad Barbados Trinidad T'dad/US Trinidad Grenada Trinidad Trinidad Antigua Trinidad Trinidad Tobago Trinidad St. Lucia Trinidad

There are two spots left to be filled in the finals! This will be done via the wild card. The wild cards are selected from the order of merit list from the Semi-Finals held on January 17th, 2016. They are therefore the next four artistes with the highest points. These Wild cards will compete via public voting to gain a spot at the Finals on Fantastic Friday. This competition is sponsored by NLCB.

The Wildcard artistes are as follows:

Sobriquet Kernal Roberts Peter Ram M1 aka Menace Jaiga

Name of Singer Kernal Roberts Peter Wiggins Sherwin Jeremiah Terrin Callender

Country Trinidad Barbados Trinidad Trinidad

The winning prize of the Carib Breakout Artiste of the year is sponsored by Honda City and SLAM 100.5 FM. The winner would receive one hundred thousand dollars cash compliments Honda City. Two artistes were selected based on their scores from fan votes which ended at midnight on Sunday 17th January, 2016.The Carib break out artists of the year

These artistes would have an opportunity to perform on Fantastic Friday. A fresh round of voting would begin right after this announcement for these two selected artistes and will end on Fantastic Friday February 5th, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

The two qualifying artistes are: 

Sobriquet Jadel Salty

Name of Singer Jardine Legere Dillon Charles

Country Trinidad Trinidad