There is no Soca Monarch competition on the roster of events for Mashramani this year, however, a national music festival is slated to be held in later on, which will include this genre.
This announcement was made at a press conference on Wednesday by Department of Culture, Youth and Sport Music Development Officer Andrew Tyndall, who revealed that the cancellation came after ANSA McAl withdrew sponsorship of the competition at short notice.
The Carib Soca Monarch, which the Trinidad and Tobago-headquartered conglomerate sponsors under its Carib beer brand, has been around for some 10 years.
On a note of clarification, Mashramani organizer Lennox Canterbury stated that ANSA McAl’s withdrawal was fuelled by the company’s desire to “refocus their branding.” He added that ANSA McAl has three major activities planned for the season.
“It is unfortunate that we won’t be having such a competition. To my mind, it was the most competitive musical competition during the Mashramani season… It is a loss to persons who will not able to practise their craft,” music producer Bonny Alves stated in an invited comment last week.
Alves stated that the Carib Soca Monarch competition, more than the others, targeted the younger generation.
He thanked the company for the years it sponsored the competition, providing what he described as “a good platform” for artistes to develop their talent. He, however, acknowledged that there can be life after Carib.
“It has happened before without Carib and it is still possible that we can have something good, proper, and more importantly, something that promotes Guyanese artistes and Guyanese music,” he said.
Clinton Adolphus, who goes by the stage name ‘Passion’ has been part of the Carib Soca Monarch competition for 7 of its 10 years.
The artiste said he was aware that ANSA McAl has invested a lot of money in the competition and although he was not sure why sponsorship was withdrawn by the company, in his opinion, the quality of music produced by participants in the past two years had dropped, and that may have been a contributing factor.
“I think, personally, the artistes could have done better in the sense of producing better songs, better melody and those things,” he stated.
“ANSA McAl gave us an opportunity to showcase our talent and I’m really thankful and grateful,” he said, opining that the fallout may have been the fault of both parties—the company and the participating artistes.
“It is a competition about music. If the judges are weak then the competition will get weak and it will fall apart,” Adolphus stated. It is his belief that the judges could have instituted stricter rules in order to maintain discipline among the artistes, therefore maintaining the standard of music produced.
