CATEGORY:CARNIVAL
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By Team Grenada

GRENVILLE, St. Andrews (July 24, 2006): The 2006 GCC/ b mobile Soca Monarch Quarterfinals was completed on Sunday July 23, with a very entertaining show - featuring the largest crowd ever witnessed for an event of this nature – in the beautiful parish of St. David.

The Quarterfinals highlighted 100 soca artists. These soca artists were selected from 160 performers who were judged during the preliminary round of the competition. These 100 artists were judged over a four-day period, with 25 artists performing per night. The judging started on Thursday July 20, in Gouyave and then moved on to Victoria, Sauteurs and finally culminated at La Sagesse in St. David’s on Sunday.

The cast of soca artists featured some of Grenada’s veteran performers as well as some newcomers in the business. The competition was very intense and the quality of the songs presented by the energetic performers was of an extremely high standard. This was revealed by some of the judges of the soca competition as well as some local music experts. The massive crowds that came out every night to view the competition in each of the parishes where the judging was held seem to be an overwhelming endorsement of these sentiments.

Today, the list of soca artists that have successfully made it through to the next round of the competition (the semi finals) were announced. This competition takes place on Friday night at the Victoria Park in Grenville. The surprising omissions to the list of semi finalists for 2006 are two of Grenada’s veteran soca artists, the ‘Hitman’ Inspector and Sheldon Douglas. Both artists would have held the coveted soca monarch title in years passes.

According to Dexter Mitchell, Chairman of GCC (Grenada Carnival Committee), many of the newcomers have had access to professional arrangers and have produced extremely high quality material this year. This is obviously a message to the ‘Big Guns’ that they mean business and should not be taken lightly.

The soca artists selected for the semi finals on Friday are: Ajamu, General PP, Zingo, Randy Isaac, Papa Jerry, Copper, Garry Williams, Soca Sterling, Theresa Jae, Tallpree, Frenchy, Mappy G, Mr. Killa, Lady Lydz, Berbice, Young Sound, Erica, Luni Spark, Spontaneous, Soca Banton, Four Brass, Terror Kid, Jericho, Mr. Lenz, KJ, Lavaman, Chain, Big J, Touch It, Pupa Leendi (the Carriacou and Petit Martinique Soca Monarch who automatically qualified for the national semi finals) and the stand by, Valene Nedd.

Team Grenada joins with the GCC to congratulate all the semi finalists and wish them all the best on Friday night. We also would like to encourage the public to come out in massive numbers to support this carnival exercise. It’s twenty-five years of mas….August is the time!!