Soca for Warriors

Perhaps best known is Maximus Dan’s anthematic song “Fighter” whose style especially in its introduction echoes Shurwayne Winchester’s past Road March hit “Look de Band coming.”

He sings: “Well, I’m a s-o-o-o.ca wah-ri-uh!” It is really rousing with a galloping precussion beat to back his “woah, oh, woah” chant.

This is certainly the song that one radio announcer put at the top of his choice of tribute songs to be played over the next few days.

Faster and lighter is Chris Garcia’s “Soca Warriors” which is somewhat more fun than Maximus as it takes itself less seriously. This is especially so in the chorus where the whole backing band shouts out “Deutschland, Deustchland, here come the Soca, Soca Warriors” punctuated by the hilarious “Wunderbar!”

KC’s “Red for T&T” is a dancy tune urging “Jump up in your red”, containing the catchy global football refrain “Ole, ole, ole. Ole, ole.”

Amidst the jovial lightness of this jump-up song, KC skilfully includes an account of a match-play by our footballers in beating Bahrain.

Also on the subject of how we qualified for the World Cup, Ninja and Lance respectively produced their celebratory songs “Beat Bahrain” and “Bahrain.”

Ronnie McIntosh is offering “Deutschland (Gih dem goals)” in which he offers guidance to our national footballers on how to win.

He adapts the perennial Carnival chant of showing your rag, to urge TT fans in a rising crescendo of “Red and yellow! Red and yellow! Red and yellow, show me yuh card.”

Clint Thomas offers a soca-chutney “Football Song” which has soca-style instrumentalisation and chutney-styled lyrics.

Chutney tributes to the warriors also came from reigning Chutney champion, Falko, who will sing in Germany, and Rikki Jai’s “The Boys from T&T.”

Other people offering advice to the the Warriors include Skatie with “Go warriors go” and Natural who advises “hit the goalie” in his “Tribute to the Soca Warriors.”

The cultural contingent going to Germany includes the artistes Destra Garcia and Maximus Dan, Atlantik, Dawg-E-Slaughter, X-calibre, DeFosto and Falko.

The main sound of support for the Soca Warriors downtown yesterday was a “mikeman” playing aloud the new CD called “Soca Warriors” by calypsonian, the Mighty Wanderer, which he was due to launch later at the Brian Lara Promenade.

While no one has dared dub the Trinidad and Tobago football team ‘‘The Calypso Boys,” the lack of soca amid the music blasting out yesterday from pirate-music speaker boxes on the streets of Port-of-Spain barely lent support to our team’s nickname of Soca Warriors.

With over half of ten street pirates surveyed playing only Jamaican music, one might erroneously have thought that it was Jamaica’s Reggae Boy who will be playing on Saturday in Germany. Or with the pirates, just like the radio stations, favouring Ne-Yo’s sweet R&B tune “I’m so sick of love songs,” you’d think the country was rooting for a team nicknamed “The Soulful Shooters.”

When Newsday surveyed ten street pirates, only one was selling a soca soccer album, which he nervously showed, saying “they jailing man for selling dat.”

So with no music vendors, legal or illicit, selling tribute music to the Soca Warriors, maybe our national foootball team will in years to come be renamed as simply “The Soccer Warriors.”