Greetings to my soca-holics! That’s right, I’m in the beautiful island of Barbados, enjoying the Cropover festival, but I’ve managed to find time to report on some of the events of the season thus far. I’ve been to several fetes here, seeing performances by Krosfyah, Lil Rick, Contone, Pong, Peter Ram and a host of others. There’s a big lineup including 4 bands including Krosfyah, Electrik, Jabae, and Guyana’s Mingles. That’s just great!

It was the Mount Gay and Cable & Wireless Party Monarch Finals. What a long and hectic day! With attendance of over 20,000, the hot sun sure didn’t keep many people home. Last week I predicted that the strongest contenders would be Lil Rick, Edwin Yearwood, Khiomal Nurse, and Barry Chandler. I was correct in who would be the frontrunners, though competition always brings surprises. The start of the competition was good though you could clearly see who the crowd favored to watch. Kimberly Inniss, came out to perform her song, “Carnival Symphony,” though she wasn’t quite on key at all times. Her presentation included a string section of violins and a cello. It was a nice effort, though it was a bit hard to understand her clearly.

Soon after at number eight, Barry Chandler performed his popular song, “Flames.” It was a wonderful presentation of dancers, fire flames, and a lift on which Barry was brought above the stage platform, while he was playing the drums. I immediately thought that he could very well win the competition. In at number fourteen, Khiomal came out to perform, “Welcome To The Band.” The choreography was well done, and Khiomal worked well with the dancers, while many people would leave the dancers in the background. A nice energetic routine, though I could hear a slight hoarseness in his voice. Lil Rick was number sixteen and came out on a crane. While I enjoy creativity in entrances, this one seemed more problematic. Rick’s performance was good though and was definitely a crowd favorite. Dressed in white for his, “Unity Jam,” he had the crowd ‘wukkin up,’ and waving their rags. He had Contone come to bring a Bajan flag back and forth across the stage. Contone is a crowd favorite who was omitted from this years’ competition during the selection process. I think his coming out and not leaving the stage in a timely fashion worked against Rick’s favor.

Edwin Yearwood put a spin on his song, “We Ready To Go.” World Cup Cricket was the theme as Barbados will be hosting some of the games next year. Dressed in cricket attire with dancers, stiltwalkers, pyrotechnics, acrobats, and then a man riding around on the lower platform on an ATV vehicle, the presentation definitely one of the biggest for the day. I think the man on the ATV was a bit much as was his bringing on Alison Hinds to get the crowd to wave their rags. Edwin stated this is his last year competing. I thought he had a nice performance though a bit overdone.

Before the results came out, Krosfyah gave a performance, as well as Trinidad’s Machel Montano and Xtatik. Xtatik gave a lively performance even as it rained. Machel performed songs such as “Big Truck,” “Craziness,” “Madder Than That,” and “Band Of The Year” alongside Patrice Roberts. Machel also performed “Roll” with Alison Hinds coming out for a verse. The crowd looked like they were having a great time.

As the results were read, I thought the results were quite fair after watching the performances. In fourth place was Khiomal, third went to Lil Rick, second was Edwin Yearwood, and in first was Barry Chandler. There will always be some disputes among fans as to who really deserved first, but I was satisfied as I thought Barry did a great job. His presentation wasn’t overdone, and the drums were a nice touch. Congratulations to all the winners and all the finalists who worked so hard to reach there. So it’s fete, fete and more fete for me this week. Check back next week for more Cropover news.