THE SOCA ROYALE showdown between the winners of the Sweet Soca and Party Monarch competitions is not popular among the artistes.What should have been the first such clash at Bushy Park last Sunday did not come off because Sweet Soca winner TC opted not to participate in the face-off.Her management took a decision she would not return to the stage because of safety concerns. TC was booed when she was announced as the winner and it is alleged that people in the audience were readying themselves to throw missiles.Newly-crowned Soca Royale champion Blood won the prized $89 000 car by default.Despite participating and later pocketing the keys, Blood said he was not in favour of that kind of clash. “I’m not really for it. I think each winner should be able to bask in their glory for a little bit before, yuh know, being dethroned after winning a competition five minutes earlier.“I’m not really for it, so I think we gotta look at it after Crop-Over. I think we all let it fly this season and, like I said before, we gotta look at the logistics of it. “We have to look at people’s feelings as well.” He lamented the fact that having separated the Party Monarch and Sweet Soca competitions and having given each one “its importance”, “what they did at the end is basically bring them back together”.When asked why he decided to participate even though he had issues with it, Blood had this to say: “We all signed off on it when it was put in front of us, I think probably because we did not understand what it really was at first.”While he did not think participants signed in ignorance, Blood said people might have had concerns and did not voice them at the time “possibly for free flow and letting the festival go ahead. I think we just let it ride without giving it deep thought”.“Now we have an idea how it shouldn’t work, I think we can sit down at table after this Crop-Over, not next year but very, very, very soon and start working out a lot of things that need to get ironed out for the running of the entire festival,” he advised.Li’l Rick, a four-time Party Monarch, said the clash was “nonsense”. Stressing he meant no disrespect to the National Cultural Foundation, Li’l Rick said it made no sense having a fast soca song competing against a slow one.“It is only obvious that when it comes down to the clash for the car, the fast song is what is going to dominate the place. If there was two different competitions, that means there was two different categories, and that was like clashing Bob Marley with the Mighty Gabby,” he said.Reigning calypso monarch and “battle referee” for the intended clash, Red Plastic Bag, weighed in as well: “I think we need to revisit a few things in this competition. We have already separated the two competitions and to bring the two of them back together may not be the best idea.” Mr Dale, who finished third in the Sweet Soca competition, said: “From the inception we always thought that the Soca Royale thing was a little bit ticklish. We did have our concerns in the fact that someone could be a winner, and within ten minutes become a loser.”
