Soca semi-final hot despite violent disruption
- all performers through to final
Stabroek News
February 17, 2007
The Carib Soca Monarch semi-final competition that was run off over the weekend at the Esplanade Ground, New Amsterdam, Berbice was intended to separate the 'bees' from the 'wanna-bees', but by the luck of faith some performers were spared the agony of being left in Berbice.
The show got off to a pretty late start around 11.30 pm but when it did the place was set ablaze with energetic performances from most of the artistes. Actually some artistes used so much energy they were out of breath while winding down their performances.
The judges Jermaine Hughes, Maxine Williams, Allison Grant, Mark DeCosta, Celeste David all with Berbice roots and Sean Bhola, because of an obscene disturbance in the show when some guys used their weapons to settle scores, had to forget all of their hard work up to that point and agree for all the competitors to go forward.
Kicking off the ball was Jamal 'G Money' Gittens, whose "Flashlight" shone a bit brighter in Berbice. He was followed by Lois 'Sweetie' Moseley who had a huge reception in Linden with "Don't Lie down So" and proved that her song has a universal appeal by arousing the crowd in Berbice as well. Marlon 'Malo' Webster made an appearance bringing his entertaining style but did not seem to get much of a reaction when he asked the crowd to give him it when he did "Give Me It".
Orlando 'Bones Roots' Johashen had an amazing performance in front of his hometown crowd who appreciated how he weaved the names of Berbice villages into his song "Hands Up". His was one of the better performances of the night. He sort of set the standard to reach for after Sweetie's performance.
Stephen Dunbar, the policeman with soca in his veins, and who asks us to "Live in Love" tried to woo the crowd by playing a few keys on his steel pan without much success; though it revealed his better skill on the pan than singing soca. Shellon 'Shelly G' Garraway took the stage and for the accomplished performer she is should seek to raise her game or set herself apart when doing "Love Can Set us Free" for the Georgetown leg of the final.
James Yhap and Gary Morgan representing X factor literally had the stage shaking with their energetic dancing as they did "Don't Get in Trouble". A number of the group's dancers accompanied them on stage the performance was at one time creating such vibrations on the stage equipment began to fall. Nicole Osbourne who had a great reaction from the Linden fans worked hard in New Amsterdam and got some respect.
There was a short break around 12.58 am before Melissa 'Vanilla' Roberts, the "Queen of the Band" introduced the crowd to her aerobic performance. Not to be outdone 16-year-old Ronella Woseley got the Berbice fans to party with her elastic waist and amazing stamina. Whirling and jumping and wining all over the stage the youth had an enjoyable welcome to Berbice after mistakenly greeting the crowd 'Goodnight Linden'. Wilbur 'Lil Man' Levans from the beginning of his track "One for the Road" had the Berbice crowd bobbing with his infectious rhythmic track. Maybe, as one performer mentioned, credit should be given to the band as well who kept the tunes tight. Berbician Lassell 'Mighty Duke' doing "Afraid" could not evoke as much energy as his counterpart Bones Roots but did have the people singing along to his AIDS awareness number. Duke was followed up by Carlos 'Lucky B' Williams who enjoyed his own performance as much as the patrons of the show did. Doing "Rred" an anti-violence piece Lucky kept the patrons' attention with all-red garb and a large stop flag.
Ironically a spate of violence erupted only a few minutes after Lucky B left the stage resulting in the death of one of two wounded men. Clearly they were not paying Lucky as much attention as they should have been.
Nevertheless, if the Georgetown final tomorrow sees the same level of performances as Berbice this writer would not want to be a judge. It's going to be another scramble. basstone@lycos.com