THE BIG SHOWDOWN is not until July 25 at Bushy Park, but an intense battle of texts will start among fans of the semi-finalists of the Sweet Soca competition from midnight July 6.Names of the sweet 16 were announced at McEnearney Quality Inc., Wildey, St Michael, and in addition to the congratulatory messages that have been flying ever since, two tents and songwriter Mr Dale have earned bragging rights.While the seven finalists to challenge defending monarch TC will be chosen after texting closes on July 15, members of the Headliners and De Digicel Big Show are already celebrating. Mr Dale, who is from Headliners, wrote for five of the semi-finalists.Six of the 16 semi-final spots went to the Headliners Tent, which claimed the lion’s share of places, followed by De Digicel Big Show with five. Bacchanal Time has three and Celebration Time landed two.“All in all it’s good for the tent . . . It augurs well for music and I feel happy, man; it’s all good. I ain’t even seeing it as competition; it’s more like a display. My only concern is I really [would] have loved to give the people an opportunity to see a physical semi-final you know, where people could come and perform. But all in all it’s all in the name of progress and we’d get to that eventually,” Mr Dale said shortly after the names were announced. Competitors will be judged on performance (50), melody (20), lyrics (20) and presentation (10).The winner of the Sweet Soca competition will have a battle royal with the winner of the Party Monarch competition, which is the second part of a rebranded package, now called Soca Royale. They will be vying for a brand new, fully loaded Kia Coupe, valued at $89 900, from the competition’s major sponsor McEnearney Quality Inc.The winner of this third battle will be chosen via texts (30 per cent) and a panel of six judges (70 per cent), which will be made up of the chief judges from both the Sweet Soca and Party Monarch judges and two others from each group. Leslie Lett and Winston Farrell will pull the names of two judges on the actual day of competition.Following is the list of semi-finalists, who were chosen from 65 entries: Elle – Blowing Wid Me Whistle (Headliners); Blood – Boom Bam (Headliners); Tejay – Bus Ah Wine (De Digicel Big Show); Brett – Can’t Stop Dis Party (Headliners); Kirk Brown – Dat Is All I Want (De Digicel Big Show); Mr Dale – Drop It (Headliners); Basil – Forking De Ground (Headliners); Peter Ram – Hold Dey (Bacchanal Time); RPB – La La La (De Digicel Big Show); Natahlee – Look Fuh Me (De Digicel Big Show); Mikey – My Party (Headliners); Biggie Irie – Nite Till Morning (De Digicel Big Show); Hypasounds – Sugar Land (Bacchanal Time); Statement – Sun Come Up (Bacchanal Time); Li’l Rick – What A Feeling (Celebration Time) and Khiomal – Wine on You (Celebration Time).
