Bigger and better things in store for Groovy King
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE energy was evident and the rhythm, coupled with his unique performance, saw Casim ‘Rucas H.E’ Pemberton distancing himself from his closest competitor by 36 points to be crowned the 2016/2017 Groovy Soca Monarch.
The Finals of the Groovy and Power Soca Competition were held last Saturday evening (Dec. 24) at Carnival Village, and it was very obvious that Pemberton was the crowd’s favourite to win the Groovy segment of the competition.
Rucas presented an African-flavoured theme to his pulsating unmatched performance, which had the crowd rocking to his ‘Sway’ lyrics, while capturing the judges’ attention and gaining their nod with his excellent props, mellifluous back-up singers and his utilisation of every square foot of the stage.
Topping the competition with 617 points, he beat out, Dejour who who opened the evening’s proceedings and tallied 581, while Shanna gained 565 and X Man scored 553 points.
With a much more improved performance, many patrons had indicated that Shanna, belting out her piece dubbed ‘International Girl’, should have gained the First Runner-up spot.
Speaking with SKNVibes Entertainment, Rucas declared that better things are expected from him in 2017, and included in those plans are the possibility of competing at the International Soca Monarch Competition in Trinidad and Tobago in February.
Speaking to his victory, Rucas indicated that it felt “great”.
“I really feel great! I have been preparing for it a very long time and I put a lot of work into it, as well as the team. We really worked hard to get what we wanted on the stage, to bring the story over and to have a good presentation.
“I have a couple of bookings. I would be travelling to different islands to perform for different events, and I am really looking forward to that. I also have some collaborations coming up with an artiste out of Antigua, who I would be working a lot with, along with an artiste out of Trinidad.
“I think it’s going to be a great looking for me as an artiste. I have been in conversations about going to the International Soca Monarch but, again, I have to ask questions because I do not have enough information on that.”
The government employee explained that the 2016 competition has seen improved performance from all those who competed, noting that this speaks well for the art form in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We in St. Kitts and Nevis are growing every year. This can be confirmed by the production that we are putting out. Every year we seem to be going on another level and, this year, I think we did definitely take it to another level with the performances. We are looking forward to see what is going to happen next year and I think we are going to step it up another notch.”
In the Power segment of the competition, LAX. featuring KT, dominated from the start to edge out defending champion Mr. Hype by 14 points (553 to 539).
Coming in third was Takeover with 537 points and he was ollowed by Shanna with 513 points
