This year’s International Bashment Soca Monarch Finals was filled with celebration, controversy, and in the end, confusion. In a twist that shocked many patrons this year, the crown at the end of the night was shared between the young artist SK, and the popular King Bubba.

 

The massive crowd response SK received during his performance indicated that he was the crowd favorite. His catchy tune, and over all solid stage presence, really showed why he deserved the crown. Meanwhile, King Bubba who is well known for his use of dancers and stage flare, stuck mostly to those strengths which obviously influenced the judges to make him a joint winner.

King Bubba

 

Was a tie warranted? It’s really hard to say. At no point during the competition was it made official how the points were to be allocated except that crowd response was going to be a factor on which each artist would be judged. If we were to go off crowd response alone, SK was easily the favorite. After having a lukewarm response from patrons, King Bubby would clearly have had to make up points in other areas. In which category did he perform exceptionally well? We can only guess.

Lil Rick

 

Other crowd-pleasing performances came from the defending Monarch Lil Rick, who had a smooth time on stage with his song ‘Balance Batty’. It was not his strongest song compared to previous hits, but the seasoned artist did himself well onstage enough to secure second place. A noticeable mention goes to  Lil Rick’s son Unda Dawg who placed third on his first finals with the song ‘Ben Ova’. A middle of the road song but the young artist visibly put his all in it; for that we must commend him.

Unda Dawg

 

Reading thus far, one might have thought to oneself, if there was a tied first place, why was there a second place? An excellent question, for which we again have no real answer. All we can do here is hope that in the future the organizers will place more emphasis in keeping the press and patrons more abreast with their judging criteria and other relevant information.

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