Bunji and Fay Ann in Jamaica 2013

Although I wasn't too keen on Bacchanal Jamaica's events this year, I had to go to see Bunji and Fay Ann.  This was my first time at the new mas camp venue which I really appreciated, especially the parking, so there was no hassle to park on the streets.  On another note, I wonder what happened to the guys who made money off of parking near the old mas camp?

I always opt for VIP if I'm going to a performance night.  The area was big enough with an adequate view of the stage. VIP included drinks and food.  I got enough drinks, but I had to wait too long because the bar service was way too slow. I also didn't get any food which didn't seem like enough in the first place. 

Bunji and Fay Ann's performance was on point as expected.  I really like that the Jamaican audience is in love with Bunji's Differentology.  Fay Ann also got love from the audience.  Her voice was powerful as ever without much help from backing tracks. It seems now that it's hard to get artistes who cannot sing on their own.  Bunji delivered his major tunes and did a little freestyle.  After almost 2 hours of non stop performing, the crowd was not ready for the show to end.  And the funny thing is that they still had songs they hadn't even performed yet. 

After the performance, I limed for about another hour while DJ Richie Ras played. Richie is up to date with his play list and his mixing skills are impressive.  Finally, a Jamaican DJ that gets it!

This was a great show and I really enjoyed it especially with my Trinbagonian posse.  I just hope that Bacchanal can do more about the food and drink in VIP.

**pic is from the Sleek fb page.  Check them out for more pics

Mess-tra at the Soca Monarch Semis

Who knew the Soca Monarch semis would have attracted so many fans especially since CNC decided to broadcast the Grammy awards instead of the bigggest show to hit Arima. I didn't watch the entire show because the power 106 stream was not the best and the show was extremely long but I was grateful for the little I could catch...I was also able to catch some of the rebroadcast on CNC the following day. My Mom is right when she says that competition always brings out the worst in people and boy did it bring out the worst in Destra. But her behaviour should not surprise us since we've always heard about incidents where her true colours came out...(the 2004 incident with Denise belfon and the cursing incident at the trini posse fete). What I don't understand is that Ms. garcia swore that she would never enter the competition since the judges "cheated" her the last time she entered, but that $2 million dollars could make a dent in her daughter's college fund. It is clear that Destra has too much ego for a competition since she is completely unaware that there are artistes who are better performers or who have better songs than her. Her performance was lukewarm; again she depended too much much on the hype and glamour and too little on singing the damn song. Destra needed to stop talking all that crap about Machel and Faye Ann and perform. It seemed that she was frustrated that she could not get the same reaction that Faye Ann and Bunji got and resorted to low blows. And what was the deal with her trying to ad lib on stage??? fail!

Now on to a real performer, Ms. Lyons; dressed in a black tank top and pants, the only prop she had was her sneakers! No frills, no fuss, she just sang "Consider it done" and let the crowd do the rest for her. Bunji was also able to mash up the velodrome with a simple performance focusing on lyrics and vocal skill. Now the man to watch out for is the Boss; I am not a fan of Iwer George but Iwer has Soca Monarch experience and has his followers, and I have to admit that "Come to meh" is one of his best songs to date. In my opinion, Destra cannot be considered a serious entrant compared to these 3.


Mr Machel did give an okay performance but like Destra, he had to try too hard to get the crowd hyped. At first I didn't think Soca Monarch would be a problem for the HD but the Soca Monarch crowd is not a One fete crowd or a Tribe Ignite crowd; I don't think that it's going to be easy for him no matter how many props he brings on on the night. Faye Ann, Bunji and Iwer all have Soca Monarch experience which Machel lacks as a competitor. The three have their die hard supporters and they know what the crowd and judges want. Backing tracks, lip syncing, and sexy dancers would only get you so far.


My picks for the finals are Faye Ann, Bunji and Iwer for Power Monarch, and Kes, Kerwin Du Bois and Shurwayne or Destra for Groovy.


And I just heard it's about TT$680 or something like that for the platinum section! I don't know about that! But since Machel in the Soca Monarch, there are a lot of people who would never even consider this event on their Carnival Friday line up and would go platinum....I admit, I have not been to SM since 1997...mostly because I could not handle the roughness but I always enjoyed watching the broadcast.... but this year the competition is fierce and I want to be there...

The soca monarch image and list of finalists can be found on the official soca monarch website.

Emerging Divas in Soca Music

Last weekend I attended a conference, Gender, Bodies and Technology hosted by the Virginia Tech's Women's and Gender Studies Program. I presented a paper based on research I've been doing on female soca artistes in Trinidad. I've been interested in the way women use cultural expression to assess, contest and redefine gendered discourse. Here is an excerpt from the paper on Faye Ann Lyon's experience being pregnant during the 2009 Carnival season:

At twenty eight years old, Faye Ann’s decision to continue working until near her delivery is not unheard of for contemporary women. For her, pregnancy does not mean the end of her career or even her sexuality. By publicly declaring that she was not ill but pregnant challenges the ideas of some areas of Western medical care that the pregnant body is in a state of disability and all women are just simply in a state of waiting for the birth of their child. Faye Ann also brought new ideas of sexuality to the stage with her pregnancy. The pregnant body takes up more space than the female body is expected to inhabit and the body no longer maintains the slender image that society approves of especially in the performance space. A contradiction emerges here about the status of the pregnant body. On one hand, it is evidence of sexual activity, but since female sexuality is expected to be hidden, pregnancy makes this difficult to conceal. On the other hand there is a supposed loss of sexuality as the woman has submitted her body to reproductive function. But Faye Ann’s glamour and confidence never faltered and she did not attempt to suppress her sexuality as she continued to wine and maintain her diva status during her performances.

Faye Ann Lyons proudly declares, “I always said that I want to be the female version of my father or surpass that in terms of performance”, which she has achieved and more as she is the only woman to capture three Road March titles and the first female Soca Monarch in Trinidad. She has accomplished her own signature as an artiste. She makes it a point to condemn the industry’s expectations of women and advocates that they should be seen as more than just sex objects but in the same light as men which is, as serious and talented soca artistes. She does not depend on her body or sexuality to achieve success but focuses on the strength of her voice, crowd incitement and writing her own songs. Her additional roles as daughter, mother and wife has not reduced her commitment to her career as she clearly wants to be on equal ground with her male counterparts. Faye Ann definitely will not take her role in the industry lightly and is prepared to continue contesting the male dominated ideas until there is significant transformation for female soca artistes which she has already contributed to.

Image sourced from: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=2940&id=547388032

Beach J'ouvert 2010- Madddd!

As I said before...Beach J'ouvert is a must-go fete during carnival in Jamaica and the fete delivered this year.

As usual, James Bond beach is an appropriate venue for the fete. It offers a large space, bathrooms and a covered area for those who do not want the paint. If you got there too late, you had to park on the road (some people told me that it is actually a highway). Now I don't mind parking on the road because I got there about 5:15pm but why the hell I must pay JA$300 to park on the Government of Jamaica road (or highway)???? And the people who collected the money were definitely not employees of the Government so why the a$$ I must take my hard earned money and pay a man not to tief my car???? especially when there are loads of police officers everywhere! Lo and behold when I walk the mile and a half to the venue, I hear a security guard telling another guard to let people park inside...so I paid JA$300 to park on the road when if I was 15 minutes later, I could have parked closer to the venue...steups.

Anywho, so I reach inside and another security guard by the entrance confiscated my Republic of Trinidad and Tobago flag! So I get vex one time...how the hell you would confiscate a national flag? So then I thought about it...why am I assuming that the guard knows that this a national flag...so I proceeded to explain to her that I am from Trinidad and this is our national flag yada yada.. My girl would look to tell me that I'm carrying a weapon and that the sign clearly states "no weapons allowed"...So by this time, I'm keeping back the line and person getting disgruntled so I told her that I did not plan to hurt anyone, I just wanted to wave a flag...so she took the flag off the stick and kept the stick...and I left it that...no time for no CARICOM argument. I say flag...you say weapon...whatever...

I'm finally inside and realized that the paint wildness was going on so I hid near the no paint zone because I don't like that wildness...trini to the bone...doh play mas and fraid powder...stoosh...whatever....not me and that paint attack.

Every year there's this guy (don't know his name, so is nobody popular) that takes control of the microphone in an effort to hype up the crowd...I think he's some kind of Bacchanal Jamaica mascot of some sort. First of all, the beach j'ouvert crowd does not need to be hyped up so this man continues year after year to make a fool of himself. He just becomes a distraction to the music...just let the DJ play the music and leave this man's annoying voice and antics out of it. Talking about Djs, you know these people bring the same mas camp DJs to play the same 10 songs that they play in mas camp...steups...I'm not going down that road again. But thank you Bacchanal Jamaica for bringing a REAL soca Dj to the fete...Big up to Private Ryan...the best soca DJ outside of Trinidad and Tobago (he's from Miami)...let me tell you that this man saved the fete!

Now I was not happy about seeing Ding Dong perform and boy was I right...a bunch ah man on the stage and they alone know what was going on...There were so many people on the stage that I'm not sure if Ding Dong was actually there. Let's just say that the performance was awful. Again, leave the dancehall and Ding Dong for another event.

A little after 8pm, Faye Ann, Bunji and the Asylum band came on the stage...madness...They performed all of their popular songs and these two really improved their act. Forget being husband and wife, there's a clear chemistry in their performance. Their voices were clear, the delivery was strong and there was a lot of energy. The majority of the crowd were not familiar with a lot of the songs but everyone else enjoyed them. Faye ann's out fit was a little boring which didn't matter to me because her performance was that good...and no one cares what Bunji wears anyway. The freestyle bits by Bunji were not too much and he got a good response from the crowd. Their performance went on for over an hour and ended with Faye Ann's True Lies (my absolutely favorite song!).

What I loved about their performance was that it was enjoyable...no glitz...no lip syncing...no imitation...just a legit show. At one time Faye Ann said, "I'm not Rihanna and I'm not Beyonce....I am Faye Ann Lyons"". This is the point that I was trying to make about Destra...stop trying to imitate other artistes...just do you...nothing was wrong with you before. Is it that we are not confident in our cultural capabilities so we imitate others? Faye Ann's attitude will make soca stand out by not making it into R&B or dancehall performance.

All in all I had a ball...it was a great fete...one of my favourites outside of Trinidad....and talk about Trinidad...if you see how much Trinbagonians were in this fete...down to meh girl Wendy Fitzwilliam...so the Trinis represented well!