Shurwayne dethrones Bunji

SHURWAYNE WINCHESTER created history Friday night at the National Stadium, Port-of-Spain where he won the Groovy Soca Monarch and Soca Monarch competitions. Performing in position number five in both competitions, the reigning Road March champion gave a performance befitting a king beating the entire field and dethroning two-time Soca Monarch Bunji Garlin in the process, winning a total of $800,000 in cash and other prizes. At exactly 10.04 pm, after the advertised 9.30 pm start, fireworks lit up the sky over the Stadium to launch a show that was supposed to be filled with glitter and glamour. Debutante Chucky kicked off the Groovy Soca Monarch segment of the show with “See You.” He was followed by Sean Caruth and his dancers performing “Baby Girl.” Zan and Patrice Roberts performed a wedding ceremony complete with  a “Yankee” pastor before they sang their popular song, “Always Be.”

Defending Groovy Soca Monarch Michelle Sylvester walked on stage with an entire “court- room” to perform “Face Me.” Her act included a cameo appearance by former National Calypso Monarch Singing Sandra. At 11.20 pm the stage was engulfed in fog hiding Shurwayne Winchester’s appearance with the Shiv Shakti dancers. Shurwayne’s honey coated voice had thousands of patrons singing in unison from the first note. Shurwayne and his band members from Traffik made some changes to his massive hit song  “Don’t Stop” and by the time he was finished, it was clear that he was the one to beat. Popular boy band Surge was up next and they seemed to have had a difficult time on stage but that did not stop the ladies in the audience from shouting at the top of their voices. Surge performed with three extra dancers and brought that part of the show to an end.

At about 12.05 am there was a “false start” to the International Soca Monarch competition when the MC announced the first singer Terry Seales singing “Hello.” It was a good five minutes before Seales and a large group of dancers appeared on stage. His was not a good performance. Former Road March champion Faye-Ann Lyons was brought on stage on a couch carried by several body builders. Dressed in a bodysuit with beads covering the bare essentials, she performed “Dat Is Carnival.” She had an array of props including a huge Carnival King costume. Newcomer to the Soca Monarch competition, Nadia Batson, gave quite a good account of herself with “One Island.” Grenada’s Soca Monarch Sheldon Douglas performed “Gone Loose.”

One hour and 25 minutes into the show, Shurwayne Winchester revealed a scaffolding with two pannists at the top and from the first note of his song “Can’t Wait” it was ten minutes of frenzy. Miss Alysha was up next with “Party” and she too made an impression as a first timer. She was followed by another debutante Rita Jones who proved to be quite a confident performer as she worked the crowd with her song “Carnival Feeling.” Former Road March champion Sanell Dempster performed in position eight but suffered from having too much reggae music in her rendition. She cleared the stage for two-time Soca Monarch Neil “Iwer” George who had the audience stand at attention for the national anthem sung by Roger George.

George then launched into “We Reach” and the entire venue was transformed into a party. Mista Vybe came on stage with a well dressed rhythm section for his performance of “Ting” but his performance was affected by his hoarse voice. It was 2.55 am when the defending Soca Monarch was announced, signalling the start of theatrics aplenty with the bombing of a dustbin on stage, blazing fire and a soldier in the middle of the Stadium on a tight rope which ran from the roof  to the concrete stands opposite. Bunji’s performance of “Bomb” was filled with loud sound effects of bombings competing with the loud music provided by his band. The show was attended by one of the largest crowds ever seen at an International Soca Monarch. Several fights among patrons kept security personnel busy throughout the night. Controversy was added to the evening when guest performer Bennie Man, a Jamaican dancehall star, appeared to challenge the credibility of the judges by declaring dethroned Bunji Garlin the real “Soca King.”