It was a night when the lyrics to some of Machel Montano’s songs took on special meaning for him as his 40th-year celebration world tour came home to Trinidad, the Mecca of Carnival. He intended to ‘Shake the Place’, “make a movie” and give his fans an experience unlike no other with his One show: ‘Machel 40’.

With a lot of things not panning out as planned for the event, Machel remained in the moment, dug deep within his soul and when it was ‘Showtime’ for him to prove his worth as an artist, his vocals, positive energy, stage presence and command of the proceedings were impeccable and for many may have saved the show.

Montano’s anticipated spectacular intro, like many other things planned for the night, did not turn out as expected. He explained later in his set that he had a drone display planned but the drones weren’t allowed into the country. But he remained a ‘Happy Pappi’ singing:

And as if everything was going as planned, Machel ‘the monk’ then proceeded to mash up the place with ‘Dr Mash Up’, ‘Mr Fete’, ‘Footsteps’, ‘Toro, Toro’, ‘and many of his numerous hits both current and past.

The theme ‘One Show’ had different sub meanings to it. One was the unity between Soca and Afrobeat and hence the inclusion of Wizkid, Arya Starr, and Rema from Nigeria. Rema was the first one on stage and sang three songs doing the beginning of ‘Calm Down’ in acapella. He was well-received but quickly departed; it was explained later that he had to leave as he was performing at the NBA All-Star Weekend.

The highly anticipated performance of Wizkid followed next. It was lackluster and disappointing to many as he paced from one end of the stage to the next trying to amp up the crowd, not singing, but talking at most times relying more on the vocals of the background track than his live voice to carry the melody.

However, it was Arya Starr who became the star from Africa. She was the darling of the crowd as she showed off her vocal prowess. She sang her hit song ‘Rush’ with Machel and made many new fans on this side of the Atlantic.

And when the soca acts turn came to perform it look like pandemonium took over the place as the crowd was instructed to ‘”mash it up and buy back” by Problem Child, to “jump like I never jump, wave like I never wave, wine like I never wine before” by Nailah Blackman and Skinny Fabulous, and ‘Shake the Place’ by Machel & Destra.

Other performers on the night with similar upbeat energy included Voice, Patrice Roberts, KMC, Benjai, Iwer George, Nadia Batson, Tempa, Lyrikal, Natty and Thunda, Olatunji, College Boy Jesse, and Jamaican dancehall singer Agent Sasco with Superblue and Machel Montano closing off the show after 5 am.

For our full coverage of ‘Machel 40 One Show’ check our YouTube Playlist

Realizing that there were problems with many aspects of the show, Machel Montano and the One Show team issued a statement to the public 2 days after the show.

The apology began…

“On behalf of JayUpScale, Monk Music and Machel Montano, collaborators of One Show at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, we would like to sincerely apologize for the late start and the challenges to get through the gates on Carnival Friday!!! We know that you expect the highest standards from us, and this fell short of what we have been doing over the years.”