Aided – albeit not of his own doing – by Spongebob, Jumo ‘Rubber Waist’ Primo LED his way amidst the roar of fireworks to yet another Soca Monarch crown on Saturday.
He successfully fended off the popular Adrian Dutchin whose performance was immediately dampened by his inclusion of the cartoon characters Spongebob and Dora dancing in a sexually suggestive manner which failed to impress the crowd or the judges.
Dutchin was seen as the strongest contender for Primo’s crown after the latter won the Groovy Soca Monarch crown in 2010 as well as the Soca Monarch title last year. The event was not held in 2011. Dutchin was left to further rue the night as Quacy ‘Ace’ Edmondson left him behind with a few unflattering comparisons to cop the second prize and title of ‘best newcomer.’
Primo’s song ‘Fireworks’ was already a crowd favourite and his performance lit up the National Park with bursts of fireworks and squibs, glow sticks and flags as the more than 3000 strong crowd soaked up the vibes and jumped up and down during his spectacular performance.
Dressed in a black jump suit covered with LED lights that slowly illuminated as the main lights were dimmed, the sparkling Primo grabbed the crowd and never let go as he used his waist to snag the $1.5 million prize.
Dutchin-the three time winner of the title- was relegated to third as his “jook” performance failed to win over the crowd. He came on stage dressed as a sailor but despite the exertions of his female soldiers who “jooked” away with him, he sailed the wrong way when he called upon the popular cartoon characters, Dora and Spongbob to show that they too can “jook.” The crowd was not impressed. Prior to the finals, Dutchin’s ‘Jook’ was a hit on the airwaves and was said to be the most popular song played.
Edmonson struck back. “The boy Dutchin…is only dog does jook but like I said it’s the same thing,” he sang to the crowd. “B52 and Vanilla shouldn’t come together next year if you agree say ‘same thing’,” Edmondson further sang in reference to some of the other competitors. He ended by asking for a moment of silence then played a death announcement which again included some of the competitors.
Orlando ‘Bonesman’ Johashen set the stage on fire. Literally!! His tribal theme saw a number of persons walking through the crowd with bottles attached to a stick set afire. As his uninspiring performance ended, as if to generate a little more excitement, one of the bottles caught fire on stage which forced stagehands to scramble to put out the blaze. The title of his song was ‘Bun dem with real fire.’
‘Jooking’ for the night was not complete as Ivelaw Campbell who goes by the name Granny Ivelaw tried to regain the crowd’s attention by climbing a ladder to the top of the stage, holding on to a beam and ‘jooked’ away.
At the end, with 386 points, second-runner up Dutchin won $200,000, first runner-up Edmondson walked away with $600,000 and Jumo took away the $1.5 million grand prize.
Judges for the event, which started an hour late, were Rocky Carew, Shawn Bhola, Patricia Chase-Green, John “Slingshot” Drepaul, Margaret Lawrence, Paul McAdam, Robert Burns and Chief Judge Lennox Canterbury. Despite the late start, the Heat Wave Band and DJ Bevon kept the crowd well entertained with selections of soca and dancehall music.
The seventeen performers for the 2013 Carib Soca Monarch Finals were: G Money with “Big Belly vs. Bumpa”; Vanilla and B52 with “Tear de roof”; Anthony ‘Chinee Man’ Abrams with “Pose”; Jumo Primo with “Fireworks”; Jonathan ‘Lil Red’ King with “Neva stop”; Orlando ‘Bonesman’ Johashen with “Bun dem with real fire”; Kwesi ‘Ace’ Edmondson with “Same thing”; Jermaine ‘Venom’ McBean with “Storm the road”; Ernesta Nelson with “Twirl”; Adrian Dutchin with “Jook”; Quacy ‘Avalanche’ Coates with “Work it”; Roger Bowen with “Looking for bumpa”; Rawleston ‘Murphy’ Warde with “Invasion”; Colbert ‘Magga Man’ Dublin with ‘Shaking it’; James ‘Boss Stephens’ Gordon with “Socamastara” and Shondel ‘Sugar’ London with “Hard work”.
King Shepard, the final performer, did not appear.
During the intermission, ANSA McAl under the Carib Beer brand launched its Mash band which saw 18 revellers displaying costumes for the road march on Saturday.
As the event wrapped up, Jumo embraced by his mother sang once again and promised the crowd a bigger performance come February 23rd. He would do well not to invite Dutchin and Spongebob!
