BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE panel convened last Saturday (Nov. 5) to sift through close to 40 submissions for the 2016 Sugar Mas Soca Competition have found all worthy of being forwarded to the elimination round.
Chairman of the Soca Competition Committee O’Grenville Henry Browne – in an interview with SKNVibes – explained that the three-member panel met at Sweet Lime where they tapped into their knowledge resource and keen listening skills for the near four-hour-long process.
The panel comprised of Theo Clark, Rohan Claxton and Nigel ‘Numpy’ Williams.
“The panel we used, they have pretty good ears and they have experience in terms of music. With the wealth of knowledge that they hold, it was easy for them to hear something and determine whether or not it sounded similar to something dated back 15 or 20 years. It was a matter of them pulling up the particular piece that a song appeared to sound like and making the comparison to determine if they were the same.
“That was done for a number of submissions and not necessarily all because some people just have a unique sound. We are not saying that they were not given the same attention as the others, but you can hear music and say yes that is this person’s work. Some revisions were required by the panel. But for the large majority, artistes were found to be exceptionally creative and original.”
Browne indicated that the entire process, although somewhat lengthy, was not a difficult one, given the panel’s experience and knowledge.
He said at the end of the process there was no plagiarized material found and thus all submissions have been cleared for advancement.
The elimination round of the competition is scheduled for November 24 and 25 and, according to the Soca Chairman, the names of the competitors would not be released until a few days prior.
