Basseterre St Kitts – A Semi-Finals showdown among 30 of the Federation’s top Soca artistes is fired up to take place next week Friday (Dec. 6) in front of the Old Treasury Building, also known as the “Sugar Mas Village”.
According to Chairman of the Carnival Committee, Sylvester Anthony, the first set of eliminations were done by the committee panel through CDs as to determine which of the artiste would make the first cut.
With the exception of one entry which the committee felt did not reach the technical requirements set for the competition, Anthony said that the artiste withdrew from the competition leaving a total of 30 performers.
“Based on the number, we had to make a decision on whether to listen to the entries individually on CD or we have the public make their decision. We eventually opted in the favour to have a Semi-Finals so that the general public and the judges can have a say who moves on to the next round,” Anthony told SKNVibes.
He added that 30 artistes together would be singing a total of 46 songs; some of whom are set to take part in both Groovy and Power categories.
Anthony told this publication that because of the enormous number of Soca Monarch hopefuls, each contestant would have a justified time frame to perform his/her singles on stage for the hundreds of anticipated persons.
“It will be free admission, because we really expect that with the exposure they will have greater benefit from having a public event for them to compete and sing so that we could select them,” Anthony noted.
The Chairman revealed that the artistes and their music have been appearing on radio; a process that the committee has been facilitating so that they are well exposed to the general public’s listening ear.
He added that the Sugar Mas 42 Committee has set up a sound cloud account for persons who could listen to all of the entries in order to choose their favourites for the upcoming Finals slated for December 20.
Anthony told SKNVibes that the committee has signed a media deal with the Caribbean Super Station, which is also a regional platform in airing the Soca Monarch songs.
According to Anthony, the 30 artistes would make a number of debuts at the different events on the Carnival Calendar, including the Health Fair planned for today (Nov. 29).
The selected finalists, according to the Chairman, would make their first appearance at the annual islandwide Bar Crawl set for December 7.
Because of the large amount of contestants, Anthony said that the judges would have final decision to only catapult 16 artistes in the Power category and 12 in the Groovy segment into the Grand Finals, making it a total of 28 finalists out of the 30 Semi-Finalists.
