BASSETERRE St Kitts – IT was truly a fight to the finish as two Champions emerged from a fierce battle when the dust settled on 2013 Soca Monarch Power and Groovy Competitions on Friday (Dec. 20).
After a nine-hour long competition, Nevisian Delly Ranks and Kittitian Mr. Hype walked away as winners in the Power and Groovy categories respectively.
The Groovy winning performance
Although he faced a number of challenges during his first attempt performance in the Groovy category, Delly Ranks returned onstage and delivered a culturally explosive performance making him the immediate crowd favourite in the segment.
In his performance, the setting took its viewers back to a small village, where three women were talking about Carnival and their expectations of the celebration.
It was then that Delly Ranks came onstage dressed in an all-in-one costume, splashed with an abundance of colours, and intercepted the ladies during the conversation; enquiring as to the reason they did not mention the Soca aspect of Carnival.
The women, who appeared clueless, were then told that with the help of their efforts he could display what Carnival and Soca truly are.
The screaming crowd then began jumping as Delly Ranks performed his winning single, ‘Love We Festival’, before a troupe of dancers appeared onstage, with some dressed as Mocka Jumbies and others donning Carnival-oriented costumes.
The cultural explosion did not end there as the dancers and Mocka Jumbies were then joined onstage by King Meeko, the artiste’s uncle, who sang along with his nephew.
It was indeed a splendid performance by Delly Ranks who had infected all with both the lyrics and music - from the patrons standing and dancing in the stands to those who were jumping and singing along with him.
But the spectacle of the night came when fireworks were sent exploding in the sky, while bright flares illuminated the stage depicting the end of what was considered to be a ‘lights out’ performance by the young Nevisian.
The Power winning performance
“I don’t care if it’s my brother’s girlfriend, I gon wuk it and go to hell,” were some of the words musically uttered by this year’s Soca Monarch Power Champion Mr. Hype, who ‘wuked’ his way to the title leaving the crowd asking for more.
The agonising linger for Mr. Hype was truly worth the wait as each time the Master of Ceremonies introduced an artiste onstage the crowd kept shouting: “Hype!”
In his very energetic and crowd-favoured performance, Mr. Hype, dressed in the same clothing he wore in his music video, appeared before the Court to answer the capital charge of “wuking his best friend’s girlfriend”, where he later pleaded guilty to the offence.
In his explanation to the Court, Mr. Hype said that he had to “wuk sumthing”, and instead of being sentenced to a hefty jail term, the Judge told him to go and “wuk everything”.
During his lengthy performance, Mr. Hype took one of his biggest dancers onstage to ‘wuk’ her, but it was after a failed attempt that the artiste was left lying on the ground with the dancer still atop him before he was placed on a stretcher in what seemed to be in an unconscious state.
It was then that the ‘Wuk It’ beat began playing and the artiste regained his composure. Still on the stretcher, he was lifted off the stage and taken within the crowd to conclude his performance.
Nevisian Ali Dee and Fantastic Thunder placed First and Second Runners-up respectively in the Groovy category, while Yanus Bagnall was adjudged First Runner-up in the Power category with Kibby closely on his heels.
More will be said on the Runners-up performance in a subsequent publication.
