BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DEFENDING CHAMPION of the International Soca Monarch Competition Machel Montano, who last year won both the Groovy and Power categories, has retained those titles but will be sharing the latter with veteran Austin ‘Super Blue’ Lyonswith whom he had tied.
The show was touted as one of the most keenly contested finals in the event’s 21-year history, as Montano came up against the first ever soca monarch Lyons.
Montano won the Digicel Groovy segment with ‘The Fog’ and he was followed by Iwer George, Blaxx and Ravi B respectively.
The competitors in that category were said to have performed with high energy at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain. However, popular contenders Destra Garcia, Patrice Roberts and Denise Belfon failed to place.
Then it was time for the Play Whe Power category.
In a previous interview, Monatno had viewed the matchup between himself and the five-time Soca Monarch winner as the student (himself) taking on the master (Lyons).
Montano, dressed in a Superman costume, encouraged everyone to get out of their seats and “Float” while the audience was chanting “Super Blue” before Lyons hit the stage to perform ‘Fantastic Friday’.
Lyons was said to have had the most crowd participation while Montano was noted to have executed the best performance.
In third place was Benjai and fourth position went to Destra Garcia.
This year’s competition was said to be missing the performances of Bunji Garlin and his wife and daughter of Super Blue, Faye-Ann Lyons-Alvarez, in the Groovy and Power categories respectively.
They bowed out of the competition, citing issues with the winners’ contracts.
